Keyboard Command Line – Why Mac Terminal Remembers Two Consecutive Commands

keyboardterminal

I started using Mac recently and before I used to work on Ubuntu.

Suppose I run these commands one by one on my terminal:

python3 main.py
python3 main2.py
python3 main2.py
python3 main2.py
python3 main2.py
python3 main2.py
python3 main2.py

Now suppose I want to run python main.py again, so I will click the up key. I will need to click up key only twice on Ubuntu but 7 times on Mac.

If two consecutive commands are same, then terminal should remember only one command instead of remembering two different commands.

How can I make this happen on macOS?

Best Answer

You need to add the HISTCONTROL environment variable to your .bash_profile. In your .bash_profile add the following line:

export HISTCONTROL=ignoreboth:erasedups

Close and restart your bash session and the dupes should be gone. Alternatively, you could just execute that same line and it will take effect for that session (use it to test it out).

From the manual page for bash(in Terminal):

HISTCONTROL
A colon-separated list of values controlling how commands are saved on the history list. If the list of values includes ignorespace, lines which begin with a space character are not saved in the history list. A value of ignoredups causes lines matching the previous history entry to not be saved. A value of ignoreboth is shorthand for ignorespace and ignoredups. A value of erasedups causes all previous lines matching the current line to be removed from the history list before that line is saved. Any value not in the above list is ignored. If HISTCONTROL is unset, or does not include a valid value, all lines read by the shell parser are saved on the history list, subject to the value of HISTIGNORE. The second and subsequent lines of a multi-line compound command are not tested, and are added to the history regardless of the value of HISTCONTROL.

Related Solutions

MacOS – Improved Terminal autocomplete funcionality (similar to Matlab’s)

In a Bash shell, you can hit Control+R to do a reverse intelligent search in the history. Start typing the command and the shell will autocomplete with previously entered commands.

Then you can either press Enter to execute the command again, use the arrow left or right key to edit the command, or keep pressing Control+R to cycle through other possible completions.

Reverse intelligent search

MacOS – Keyboard shortcut for jumping directly to a specific input method

One option would be to download changeInput and assign shortcuts to shell commands like changeInput U.S..

You could also use KeyRemap4MacBook:

<?xml version="1.0"?>
<root>
  <vkchangeinputsourcedef>
    <name>KeyCode::VK_CHANGE_INPUTSOURCE_HIRAGANA</name>
    <inputsourceid_equal>com.apple.inputmethod.Kotoeri.Japanese</inputsourceid_equal>
  </vkchangeinputsourcedef>
  <vkchangeinputsourcedef>
    <name>KeyCode::VK_CHANGE_INPUTSOURCE_KATAKANA</name>
    <inputsourceid_equal>com.apple.inputmethod.Kotoeri.Japanese.Katakana</inputsourceid_equal>
  </vkchangeinputsourcedef>
  <item>
    <name>change_inputsources</name>
    <identifier>change_inputsources</identifier>
    <autogen>__KeyToKey__ KeyCode::E, VK_CONTROL | VK_OPTION | VK_COMMAND | ModifierFlag::NONE, KeyCode::VK_CHANGE_INPUTSOURCE_ENGLISH</autogen>
    <autogen>__KeyToKey__ KeyCode::H, VK_CONTROL | VK_OPTION | VK_COMMAND | ModifierFlag::NONE, KeyCode::VK_CHANGE_INPUTSOURCE_HIRAGANA</autogen>
    <autogen>__KeyToKey__ KeyCode::K, VK_CONTROL | VK_OPTION | VK_COMMAND | ModifierFlag::NONE, KeyCode::VK_CHANGE_INPUTSOURCE_KATAKANA</autogen>
  </item>
</root>

See the private.xml documentation.

VK_CHANGE_INPUTSOURCE_ENGLISH is defined in vkchangeinputsourcedef.xml. You can see the IDs of input sources from EventViewer.app. Without | ModifierFlag::NONE for example the first setting would also apply to control-option-shift-command-E. See the source for the key code values and predefined settings.

Best Answer

Related Solutions

MacOS – Improved Terminal autocomplete funcionality (similar to Matlab’s)

MacOS – Keyboard shortcut for jumping directly to a specific input method

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