I am starting to learn some Regex, therefore I use this command repeatedly:grep pattern /usr/share/dict/american-english Only the part with pattern changes, so I have to write the long expression /usr/share/dict/american-english again and again. Someone made the remark that it is possible to expand an argument of a command from the command history by typing cryptic character combinations instead of the full expression. Could you tell me those cryptic character combinations ? 
How to access the second argument from the last command in the history ?
bash;command line;command history;history expansion
You can use <M-.> (or <Esc>. if your Meta key is being used for something else), that is, Meta-dot (or <esc> dot), where Meta is usually the Alt key, to recall the last argument of the previous command. So, first you would type$ grep foo /usr/share/dict/american-englishAnd then if you wanted to grep for something else, you would type$ grep barAfter typing a space and then Esc. (that is, first pressing the escape key, and then the period key):$ grep bar /usr/share/dict/american-englishYou can also use either of the following:$ grep bar !:2$ grep bar !$Where !:2 and !$ mean second argument and last argument respectively.