When you are searching through history, you may want to execute a different command but use the same parameter from the command that you’ve just searched.
In the example below, the !!:$ next to the vi command gets the argument from the previous command to the current command.
# ls anaconda-ks.cfg anaconda-ks.cfg # vi !!:$ vi anaconda-ks.cfg
In the example below, the !^ next to the vi command gets the first argument from the previous command (i.e cp command) to the current command (i.e vi command).
# cp anaconda-ks.cfg anaconda-ks.cfg.bak anaconda-ks.cfg # vi !^ vi anaconda-ks.cfg