I find fzf works better for this task, which supports fuzzy-search your command history. To install fzffzf, run the following command:
git clone --depth 1 https://github.com/junegunn/fzf.git ~/.fzf # say yes to its install prompts ~/.fzf/install Restart the shell, you should get a far better experience searching your history commands (the shortcut is still Ctrl-RCtrl+R). To navigate the search results, use Ctrl-NCtrl+N and Ctrl-PCtrl+P.