Bash history

Bash command history feature allows to recall, edit and rerun previous commands. Also allows commands to be saved using the history -a command.

Variables to control Bash History:

• HISTFILE: The default value is ~/.bash_history
• HISTFILESIZE
• HISTTIMEFORMAT

Usage

• Basic example:

export PROMPT_COMMAND='history -a'

• Advanced examples:
  • echo 'export HISTTIMEFORMAT="%d/%m/%y %T "' >> ~/.bash_profile
  • export PROMPT_COMMAND='if [ "$(id -u)" -ne 0 ]; then echo "$(date "+%Y-%m-%d.%H:%M:%S") $(pwd) $(history 1)" >> ~/.logs/bash-history-$(date "+%Y-%m-%d").log; fi'
  • Sending history to syslog (needs recompiling source): Bash also support syslog capabilities at compiling time but it is not enabled by default in most distributions: https://github.com/bminor/bash/blob/d233b485e83c3a784b803fb894280773f16f2deb/config-top.h

Activities

1. Install https://github.com/ohmybash bash customization
2. Review output from history command

Related commands

• set -o history

See also

• acct
• fc
• Bash [ -c ], alias, &&, Bash history, Autocompletion, set, unset, export, .bash_aliases, .bashrc and .bash profile, PS1, echo, brace expansion, Function, shopt, trap, set -e, source, PATH, complete, disown, .hushlogin, .bashrc, builtin, eval, set, $PATH, $HOME, TZ, .profile, -e, -i, Builtin (Bash), mapfile, ~, return (Bash), for, until, declare, dirname, basename, functions.sh, Bash arithmetic expansion, shift, bash --rcfile, readonly

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Source: https://en.wikiversity.org/wiki/Bash_programming/Bash_History