HISTORY shell variable management in Unix/Linux

Published on June 23, 2010

To recall a previous command, we use the history command. There are many options you can set depending on how you want to manage your history.

Set the number of lines to store in history

Use the HISTSIZE variable. Edit ~/.bashrc or ~/.bash_profile and add this:

HISTSIZE=1000
HISTFILESIZE=1000

Log out of the terminal session and login. You will see the changes.

Change the history filename to arulhistory

Use the HISTSIZE variable. Edit ~/.bashrc or ~/.bash_profile and add this:

HISTFILE=~/.arulhistory

Log out of the terminal session and login. You will see the changes.

Prevent repeated commands from piling up in history

Sometimes you enter several repeated commands like ls -al and clear. To prevent the duplicate commands from getting stored in history, use the HISTCONTROL variable. Edit ~/.bashrc or ~/.bash_profile and add this:

export HISTCONTROL=ignoredups

Now type history and you won't find previous commands duplicated.

Related Posts

If you have any questions, please contact me at arulbOsutkNiqlzziyties@gNqmaizl.bkcom. You can also post questions in our Facebook group. Thank you.

Disclaimer: Our website is supported by our users. We sometimes earn affiliate links when you click through the affiliate links on our website.

Published on June 23, 2010