$ bla1 bla2 bla3 & $ <ESC .> $ & Why not $ bla3
What value is remembering "&". Emacs' doesn't, and doesn't bother even mentioning it: C-c . runs the command comint-insert-previous-argument, which is an interactive compiled Lisp function in `comint.el'. It is bound to C-c .. (comint-insert-previous-argument INDEX) Insert the INDEXth argument from the previous Comint command-line at point. Spaces are added at beginning and/or end of the inserted string if necessary to ensure that it's separated from adjacent arguments. Interactively, if no prefix argument is given, the last argument is inserted. Repeated interactive invocations will cycle through the same argument from progressively earlier commands (using the value of INDEX specified with the first command). This command is like `M-.' in bash.
