I have long used 【Meta+p】 to recall previously entered information in the minibuffer. For example, when I’m editing Groff input it’s often convenient to typeset what I have so far to check that the result looks good or just to read what I’ve written without the markup. I do that by selecting the entire buffer with 【Ctrl+x h】, piping the buffer to groff with 【Meta+|】, and then specifying the command
groff -ms -pset -X | gxditview
It’s a pain to keep typing that so after the first time I just type 【Meta+p】 to bring up the pipeline again.
You can, of course, move forward in the minibuffer history with 【Meta+n】 but there are some other not so obvious ways of navigating the minibuffer. The command 【Meta+r】 regexp 【Return】 will search backward in the minibuffer history for the entry matching the regular expression regexp. Similarly, 【Meta+s】 regexp 【Return】 will search forward for the entry matching regexp. You can continue either of these searches to the next match with 【Meta+r Return】 or 【Meta+s Return】.
Finally, you can repeat the last echoed message with 【Ctrl+h e】
Summary
| Key Sequence | Operation |
|---|---|
| 【Meta+p】 | Backward one entry |
| 【Meta+n】 | Forward one entry |
| 【Meta+r】 regexp 【Return】 | Search backwards for regexp |
| 【Meta+s】 regexp 【Return】 | Search forward for regexp |
| 【Meta+r Return】 | Repeat backward REGEXP search |
| 【Meta+s Return】 | Repeat foreard REGEXP search |
| 【Ctrl+h e】 | Show last echoed message |
Update: 【Meta+s】 → 【Meta+n】 in summary