Alternative to Ctrl-R reverse search in bash

I'm using the fuzzy finder program FZF. I've written my own key bindings and shell scripts to utilize FZF as my tool of choice to reverse-search an interactive Bash shell's history. Feel free to copy and paste the code from my Config GitHub repository.

~/.bashrc configuration file

# Test if fuzzy finder program _Fzf_ is installed.
#
if type -p fzf &> /dev/null; then

  # Test if _Fzf_ specific _Readline_ file is readable.
  #
  if [[ -f ~/.inputrc.fzf && -r ~/.inputrc.fzf ]]; then

    # Make _Fzf_ available through _Readline_ key bindings.
    #
    bind -f ~/.inputrc.fzf
  fi
fi

~/.inputrc.fzf configuration file ##

$if mode=vi

  # Key bindings for _Vi_ _Insert_ mode
  # ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
  set keymap vi-insert

  "\C-x\C-a": vi-movement-mode
  "\C-x\C-e": shell-expand-line
  "\C-x\C-r": redraw-current-line
  "\C-x^": history-expand-line
  "\C-r": "\C-x\C-addi$(HISTTIMEFORMAT= history | fzf-history)\C-x\C-e\C-x\C-r\C-x^\C-x\C-a$a"

  # Key bindings for _Vi_ _Command_ mode
  # ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
  set keymap vi-command

  "\C-r": "i\C-r"
  "\ec": "i\ec"

$endif

fzf-history executable Bash script

#!/usr/bin/env bash
#
# Retrieve command from history with fuzzy finder
# ===============================================
# Tim Friske <[email protected]>
#
# See also:
#   * man:bash[1]
#   * man:fzf[1]
#   * man:cat[1]

shopt -os nounset pipefail errexit errtrace
shopt -s extglob globstar

function print_help {
  1>&2 cat \
<<'HELP'
usage:
  HISTTIMEFORMAT= history | fzf-history
HELP
}

function fzf_history {
  if [[ -t 0 ]]; then
    print_help
    exit
  fi

  local fzf_options=()
  fzf_options+=(${FZF_DEFAULT_OPTS:-})
  fzf_options+=('--tac' '-n2..,..' '--tiebreak=index')
  fzf_options+=(${FZF_HISTORY_FZF_OPTS:-})
  fzf_options+=('--print0')

  local cmd='' cmds=()
  while read -r -d '' cmd; do
    cmds+=("${cmd/#+([[:digit:]])+([[:space:]])/}")
  done < <(fzf "${fzf_options[@]}")
  if [[ "${#cmds[*]}" -gt 0 ]]; then
    (IFS=';'; printf '%s\n' "${cmds[*]}")
  fi
}

fzf_history "$@"

key-bindings.bash sourceable Bash script

Taken and slightly adapted from FZF's Bash key bindings file here are the Emacs mode compatible key bindings for Bash's history reverse-search with Ctrl-R (untested):

if [[ ! -o vi ]]; then
  # Required to refresh the prompt after fzf
  bind '"\er": redraw-current-line'
  bind '"\e^": history-expand-line'

  # CTRL-R - Paste the selected command from history into the command line
  bind '"\C-r": " \C-e\C-u\C-y\ey\C-u$(HISTTIMEFORMAT= history | fzf-history)\e\C-e\er\e^"'
fi

• Up arrow: only practical for very recent stuff.
• grep blablabla ~/.bash_history: you will have to set bash to save history to file after each command.

From my ~/.bashrc You may want to find out what the commands do and tweak.

# don't put duplicate lines in the history. See bash(1) for more options
HISTCONTROL=ignorespace:ignoredups:erasedups
HISTFILESIZE=99999
HISTSIZE=99999
export PROMPT_COMMAND="history -a; $PROMPT_COMMAND"
# append to the history file, don't overwrite it
shopt -s histappend
#history
shopt -s cmdhist
shopt -s histreedit
shopt -s histverify
shopt -s lithist