Module 5 · Lesson 211 min

Search, and edit scrollback in your editor

Search lives inside Scroll mode. From Scroll mode, s starts a search; you type your needle, press Enter, and then jump between matches. You can toggle case sensitivity, wrapping, and whole-word matching while you search.

Searching (from Scroll mode)

`Ctrl`then`s`	Enter Scroll mode
`s`	Start a search (type the needle, then Enter)
`n`	Next match (down)
`p`	Previous match (up)
`c`	Toggle case sensitivity
`w`	Toggle wrap-around
`o`	Toggle whole-word matching

Now the feature that pays for the whole tool. From Scroll mode, e dumps the entire scrollback buffer into your $EDITOR as a file. Suddenly all that terminal history is a real buffer: search it with your editor's search, copy blocks, save it, pipe it. No more fighting terminal selection to grab a stack trace.

Edit scrollback

`Ctrl`then`s`	Enter Scroll mode
`e`	Open the pane's scrollback in $EDITOR

Practice

Try it yourself

Search your history

Find a needle in the scrollback.

Produce output containing a known word, e.g. echo needle; seq 1 200
Press Ctrl s then s, type needle, press Enter
Use n and p to move between matches

Tick every step to confirm you did it.

Dump scrollback to your editor

Send a pane's history straight into your editor.

Run a command with output worth keeping, like ls -la or a failing build
Press Ctrl s then e
Your $EDITOR opens with the scrollback as its contents
Search or copy inside the editor, then quit back to the pane

Tick every step to confirm you did it.

Recall

Recall the killer keys

This one's worth having cold.

Which keys open the current pane's scrollback in your editor?