Can I insert sudo via the ^ command? Sorry if this is a yes/no question.. I am reading this unix tutorial and found the following: > Repeating and Modifying the Previous Command > > [..] > If you mistype leavenworth as leaveworth you can correct it with the following command: % ^leave^leaven Unfortunately I don't have a computer to try this on, but I was wondering: Since some commands require `sudo` to run, could I then write `^^sudo` to "insert" sudo to the previous command?

I think using history completion is a much more universal way to do this


$ sudo !!


Most shells have some shortcut for the previous command. That one works in bash and zsh. There are various ways you can do substitution, but usually these are best left for removing or changing bits, if you want to expand it, just grabbing the whole thing is the simplest way. You can add whatever you like before and after the !! to expand on the previous command.

**Edit:** The original question was about _prepending_ to the previous command which the above covers nicely. If you want to _change_ something inside it as the commentor below the syntax would go like this:


$ sudo !!:s/search/replace/


...where 'search' is the string to match against and replace...well you get the idea.