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sudo

Press ESC ESC and the current command line gets sudo prefixed. Press it again to remove it. Works on three targets:

  1. The line you're typing — realize halfway through that it needs root.
  2. An empty prompt — pulls the previous command from history, sudo-ed. This is the killer one: systemctl restart foo → permission denied → ESC ESC ↵.
  3. A line already starting with sudo — toggles it off.

Pro tips​

  • It's smarter than a plain prefix: EDITOR-launching commands become sudoedit (e.g. vim /etc/hosts → sudoedit /etc/hosts), which is the safe way to root-edit files.
  • Most useful on the Linux utility nodes, where package and systemd operations are constant; on macOS it earns its keep with launchctl and /etc edits.
  • ESC ESC also works mid-history-browse — arrow up to an old command, ESC ESC, enter.