In a bash-script I'd like to retrieve the last command which was executed. In bash itself the following command works like a charm.
lastCommand=$(echo `history |tail -n2 |head -n1` | sed 's/[0-9]* //')
Inside scripts however history doesn't work at all.
Is there a way to retrieve the command inside a script?
Best Answer
For bash v4+ :
Use interactive mode in shell.
Set she-bang as
and
history
inside of your script will work.Commands was executed inside of script are not recorded into history.
For bash v3 (and possible for older ones)
The way above doesn't work for this vesions of bash. However you can remove she-bang at all and history will work well. This way also works great for bash v4.
set she-bang as interactive and do not forget about
set -o history
like chepner mentioned.PS.
history |tail -n2 |head -n1
doesn't equal to the last command. it is command before last one.Note if last or prelast commands were multiline it won't return the correct result.
btw in console you can use
!-2
to refer to prelast command instead of your strange construction. unfortunately it seems doesn't work in shell script even in interactive mode.