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71<h4 class="subsection">32.2.4 Readline Arguments</h4>
72
73<p>You can pass numeric arguments to Readline commands.  Sometimes the
74argument acts as a repeat count, other times it is the <i>sign</i> of the
75argument that is significant.  If you pass a negative argument to a
76command which normally acts in a forward direction, that command will
77act in a backward direction.  For example, to kill text back to the
78start of the line, you might type &lsquo;<samp>M-- C-k</samp>&rsquo;.
79</p>
80<p>The general way to pass numeric arguments to a command is to type meta
81digits before the command.  If the first &lsquo;digit&rsquo; typed is a minus
82sign (&lsquo;<samp>-</samp>&rsquo;), then the sign of the argument will be negative.  Once
83you have typed one meta digit to get the argument started, you can type
84the remainder of the digits, and then the command.  For example, to give
85the <kbd>C-d</kbd> command an argument of 10, you could type &lsquo;<samp>M-1 0 C-d</samp>&rsquo;,
86which will delete the next ten characters on the input line.
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