[Chapter 11] 11.8 Repeating a Cycle of Commands
Author: Jerry Peek, Tim O'Reilly & Mike Loukides
Date: 1998-08-04T21:36:10Z

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| Chapter 11 The Lessons of History |

## 11.8 Repeating a Cycle of Commands

The `!!` history substitution gives a copy of the previous command. Most people use it to re-execute the previous command line. Sometimes I want to repeat a cycle of two commands, one after the other. To do that, I just type `!-2` (second-previous command) over and over:

>     % vi plot
>        ...
>     % vtroff -w plot
>        ...
>     % !-2
>     vi plot
>        ...
>     % !-2
>     vtroff -w plot
>        ...

You can cycle through three commands with `!-3`, four commands with `!-4`, and so on. The best part is that if you can count, you never have to remember what to do next. `:-)`

- JP

11.7 History Substitutions |  | 11.9 Running a Series of Commands on a File