How to enable the bash command history

bash

I am using bash shell on SUSE Linux Enterprise 10 sp1.

The bash history was disabled by somebody. That means I can't get the previous command by pressing the UP key. I want to enable the command history.

How can I do this?

Best Answer

At a Bash prompt, type the following commands and do the steps listed after each one:

set -o | grep history

If you get "history off" then add this line at the end of your ~/.bashrc:

set -o history

Next try:

echo $HISTFILE
echo $HISTSIZE
echo $HISTFILESIZE

If the first one is blank or /dev/null, add this line to the end of your ~/.bashrc:

HISTFILE=$HOME/.bash_history

If either of the last two print 0, set them to some number like the default of 500:

HISTFILESIZE=500
HISTSIZE=500

Related Solutions

Macos – When I paste a command on the bash prompt it is not in history — how can I add it

There's an 'ignorespace' directive that won't save commands with blankspace at the start of the line, which is possible when you're cutting and pasting. There's an 'ignoredups' directive that only saves the earliest instance of a command, which might be the case here if you have a long history file and have used the command before. But, both of these are unset on my OSX10.6 machine, so unless you turned it on, these probably don't explain your situation.

Other scenario is that you've su-ed into another user, which could well be the case if you're cutting and pasting commands from somewhere else to get something fixed, so when you drop out of that user's (usually the root user's) context, the bash history is not available to you because it's in the privileged user's history, not yours.

Vim-like history in bash

Here's one way to set up history-search-backward and history-search-forward:

Step1:

Put the following in your /etc/inputrc file:

$if mode=emacs
"\ep": history-search-backward
"\en": history-search-forward
$endif

(Or simply put the following between in the existing if statement)

"\ep": history-search-backward
"\en": history-search-forward

Step2:

Source your console:

. ~/.bashrc

Step3:

Test it out. For example, to search backwards through all your vim commands, type:

vim Alt+P

And keep hitting Alt+P, to loop through all of your commands.

EDIT:

This answer is a summary of the information taken from here

Best Answer

Related Solutions

Macos – When I paste a command on the bash prompt it is not in history — how can I add it

Vim-like history in bash

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