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I have recently discovered that if we press Ctrl+X Ctrl+E, bash opens the current command in an editor (set in $VISUAL or $EDITOR) and executes it when the editor is closed. But it doesen't seem to be documented in the man pages.

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Search for edit-and-execute-command in the man page. – n.m. Aug 3 '13 at 7:41
    
Yes, I got it now. – Kartik Aug 3 '13 at 7:44
    
If you use Bash's vi mode, the short cut is Esc, V. I trigger this all the time by accident. Finally learned what it means today :) – mehaase Sep 23 '14 at 14:43
up vote 3 down vote accepted

I have found it out now. I should have read it more carefully before asking this.

The man page says:

edit-and-execute-command (C-xC-e)
          Invoke  an  editor  on the current command line, and execute the
          result as shell commands.   Bash  attempts  to  invoke  $VISUAL,
          $EDITOR, and emacs as the editor, in that order.
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