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# Custom history configuration | |
# Run script using: | |
# chmod u+x better_history.sh | |
# sudo su | |
# ./better_history.sh | |
echo ">>> Starting" | |
echo ">>> Loading configuration into /etc/bash.bashrc" | |
echo "HISTTIMEFORMAT='%F %T '" >> /etc/bash.bashrc | |
echo 'HISTFILESIZE=-1' >> /etc/bash.bashrc | |
echo 'HISTSIZE=-1' >> /etc/bash.bashrc | |
echo 'HISTCONTROL=ignoredups' >> /etc/bash.bashrc | |
echo 'HISTIGNORE=?:??' >> /etc/bash.bashrc | |
echo '# append to history, dont overwrite it' >> /etc/bash.bashrc | |
echo 'shopt -s histappend' >> /etc/bash.bashrc | |
echo '# attempt to save all lines of a multiple-line command in the same history entry' >> /etc/bash.bashrc | |
echo 'shopt -s cmdhist' >> /etc/bash.bashrc | |
echo '# save multi-line commands to the history with embedded newlines' >> /etc/bash.bashrc | |
echo 'shopt -s lithist' >> /etc/bash.bashrc | |
echo '# After each command, append to the history file and reread it' >> /etc/bash.bashrc | |
echo 'export PROMPT_COMMAND="${PROMPT_COMMAND:+$PROMPT_COMMAND$"\n"}history -a; history -c; history -r"' >> /etc/bash.bashrc | |
# Reload BASH for settings to take effect | |
echo ">>> Reloading BASH" | |
exec "$BASH" | |
echo ">>> Finished. Exiting." |
Thanks for your blog post on bash history
, and this script.
I'm still evaluating, but as of now, I wonder if your PROMPT_COMMAND
is, uh... "a universally good thing"?
PROMPT_COMMAND="${PROMPT_COMMAND:+$PROMPT_COMMAND$"\n"}history -a; history -c; history -r"
Here's why: At times, I keep 2 or 3 SSH sessions open to hosts where I use bash
as the interactive shell. I use these sessions for different purposes; e.g. one session may be used for script development, while another is used for support... man whatever
& that sort of thing. Working this way, a unique session history has advantages. For me, PROMPT_COMMAND='history -a'
is all I really want while I am working - I don't need a "merged" history from other sessions. This of course is personal; it depends on one's use case or workflow.
So that's it - just a comment with another point of view.
The blog is not working anymore, but Wayback Machine has a copy: https://web.archive.org/web/20210520231125/https://www.thomaslaurenson.com/blog/2018-07-02/better-bash-history/
@thomaslaurenson, I love this script. 2 things:
# Caveat: when switching between bash sessions user must hit enter key to update bash history from other sessions
"\n"
so that it becomes'\n'
. I don't think it is causing a problem in this instance. But when I was trying figure out why sessions weren't updating history I was distracted by this and thought that it might be causing the problem.Again, thanks for the great blog post and script.