How to scroll in a terminal using keyboard?

Question

How can I scroll in bash using only the keyboard? If it's not possible in bash, are there any other shells that support this?

This is not a feature of the shell, it's a feature of the terminal emulator. See [What is the exact difference between a 'terminal', a 'shell', a 'tty' and a 'console'?](http://unix.stackexchange.com/q/4126) What terminal are you using? — Gilles 'SO- stop being evil', Jan 05 '13 at 17:22
I think this is too broad. As mentioned, scrolling is a terminal emulator feature, not a shell feature. There are *really very many* terminal emulators many of which implement scrolling in different ways, or not at all. — Anko - inactive in protest, May 11 '15 at 17:39
On that score: For a question specifically about GNOME Terminal, although the questioner initially _also_ did not specify the terminal emulator program, see https://unix.stackexchange.com/questions/460422/ . — JdeBP, Aug 14 '18 at 11:42

score 239 · Accepted Answer · edited Jan 02 '16 at 16:55

239

In "terminal" (not a graphic emulator like gterm), Shift+PageUp and Shift+PageDown work.

edited Jan 02 '16 at 16:55

G-Man Says 'Reinstate Monica'

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answered Jan 05 '13 at 17:54

isevcik

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Shift+Uparrow and shift+Downarrow also work for line at a time scrolling. – Joe Jan 13 '13 at 07:03
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for me its ctrl-shift+Uparrow – john-jones Sep 09 '16 at 10:43

score 57 · Answer 2 · edited Oct 02 '17 at 12:48

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I use the default terminal in Ubuntu 14 (bash) and to scroll by page it is Shift + PageUp or Shift + PageDown to go up/down a whole page.

Ctrl + Shift + Up or Ctrl + Shift + Down to go up/down by line.

edited Oct 02 '17 at 12:48

hg8

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answered Aug 10 '14 at 18:52

max pleaner

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Bash is shell not terminal. – Prvt_Yadav Dec 17 '21 at 07:49

score 18 · Answer 3 · edited Jul 31 '15 at 07:53

This depends on your terminal emulator, not the shell you are using. I personally use GNU Screen. From the description:

Screen is a full-screen window manager that multiplexes a physical terminal between several processes, typically interactive shells.

You can use C-a [ to enter scrollback mode. From here, you can scroll with the keyboard and even copy and paste. The mode can be exited from by using the Esc key.

score 17 · Answer 4 · edited Mar 30 '16 at 19:21

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Keyboard: Apple/Mac

Terminal/Emu: OSX Terminal

Shell: bash

fn + up_arrow: page up
fn + down_arrow: page down
cmd + up_arrow: line up
cmd + down_arrow: line down

edited Mar 30 '16 at 19:21

Shaun Wilson

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answered Aug 08 '15 at 13:32

zero_day

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This adds nothing, appears to be mac specific (which would not be a bad thing if properly marked as such), and does not apply to bash but to the terminal emulator (which would be useful if we knew what it was). – hildred Aug 08 '15 at 15:51

score 7 · Answer 5 · answered Oct 27 '17 at 14:53

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On FreeBSD, you can use Scroll Lock to toggle screen scrolling mode. Press it once, then use Up/Down, PgUp/PgDown, Home/End to scroll. Press it again to jump back down and resume typing.

answered Oct 27 '17 at 14:53

mwfearnley

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damn it, Scroll Lock just lost its function in gnome-terminal. – user26742873 Aug 27 '21 at 14:49

score 6 · Answer 6 · edited Jan 02 '16 at 16:59

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In most terminals that I known you can use Shift+PageUp and Shift+DownDown for scrolling. Note that some terminals don't support scrolling, or use a very limited history buffer. In the latter case, you may want to increase the limit, if it is configurable.

As an alternative, use a pager; for example, less.

edited Jan 02 '16 at 16:59

G-Man Says 'Reinstate Monica'

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answered Jan 05 '13 at 17:31

Philipp Claßen

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Chris Halcrow · Answer 7 · 2020-01-16T22:21:23.377

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I access a container via an Ubuntu 16.04 LTS terminal, from a Windows machine. I needed to use space (when inside a bash session on a Docker container running Linux Ubuntu).

edited Jan 16 '20 at 22:21

answered Jan 16 '20 at 06:00

Chris Halcrow

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Please consider adding some more information on the virtual environment of your container (such as OS type/version, bash version etc.) so that readers may better assess the applicability of your answer to their specific situation. – AdminBee Jan 16 '20 at 08:15
What ... pressing space? – user26742873 Aug 27 '21 at 14:49

score 2 · Answer 8 · edited Jun 21 '18 at 00:18

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There is an another way to show everything in terminal organized write to the last to any command " | less " and by clicking SPACE BUTTON you can scroll down an up.

Examples

ps aux
ps aux | less
ps fax
ps fax | less

edited Jun 21 '18 at 00:18

slm

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answered Jun 20 '18 at 22:32

abdelmoumen drici

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score 2 · Answer 9 · answered Aug 01 '19 at 09:02

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Linux on Apple / Mac Keyboard (at least on MacBook Pro)

Page-up: shift+fn+UpArrow
Page-down: shift+fn+DownArrow
Line-up: shift+control+UpArrow
Line-down: shift+control+DownArrow
Home: shift+fn+LeftArrow
End: shift+fn+RightArrow

answered Aug 01 '19 at 09:02

GuzmanEscobar

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score 1 · Answer 10 · answered Sep 03 '17 at 03:04

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If you use VirtureBoxVM on Mac OS, press SHIFT + fn + up_arrow ( or down_arrow) to roll.

answered Sep 03 '17 at 03:04

Huy Nguyễn

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score 1 · Answer 11 · edited Apr 20 '20 at 14:29

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I don't have PgUp so I use Fn+Shift+UpArrow

edited Apr 20 '20 at 14:29

AdminBee

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answered Apr 20 '20 at 14:23

Milo Thatch G

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score 1 · Answer 12 · answered Dec 17 '21 at 04:42

Its also depend on your keyboard PageUp/Down and arrow keys layout. Here is my keyboard layout and I am using Ubuntu.

Answered by @Guzman is working for me.

Page-up: shift+fn+UpArrow
Page-down: shift+fn+DownArrow
Line-up: shift+control+UpArrow
Line-down: shift+control+DownArrow
Home: shift+fn+LeftArrow
End: shift+fn+RightArrow

How to scroll in a terminal using keyboard?

12 Answers12

Examples

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