Bash history lag [SOLVED]

mooncactus · 2017-08-03 07:05:30

Hello! I have one annoying problem on my arch installation: whenever I use terminal and scroll previously typed commands (with UP key) it starts to lag after 3-5 commands. Damn thing just stucks, I start hitting UP key furiously and after some seconds it goes again. I am not heavy terminal user (or experienced), but need it sometimes. Emulator is termite, wm is i3, but it happens to me in urxvt and openbox too. Didn't done any kind of bash configuration. Please help me.

Last edited by mooncactus (2017-08-03 09:57:16)

jasonwryan · 2017-08-03 08:10:58

Paste your .bashrc

mooncactus · 2017-08-03 08:18:13

#
# ~/.bashrc
#

# If not running interactively, don't do anything
[[ $- != *i* ]] && return

alias ls='ls --color=auto'
PS1='[\u@\h \W]\$ '

jasonwryan · 2017-08-03 08:27:25

Well, it isn't that...

Does it happen in other terms (xterm, for instance)?

mooncactus · 2017-08-03 08:36:56

Yes, just tried xterm, stuck on third command

jasonwryan · 2017-08-03 08:42:29

Does it happen in the TTY, or just X? You are going to have to narrow it down, to identify under what specific conditions it is reproducible, otherwise this will be a long thread with mostly guesses...

robg · 2017-08-03 08:47:31

Could you please post the output of `echo $HISTSIZE`?
Also, does the problem persist if

a) you don't start X? (i.e. try to access the history in a TTY.)
b) you run `mv .bash_history .bash_history_tmp`? (This will make sure that bash starts a fresh history file. To revert, run `rm .bash_history` and `mv .bash_history_tmp .bash_history`.)

mooncactus · 2017-08-03 08:59:09

Well, same thing with TTY. I think it wasn't stuck so quick just after installation but happend always if I scroll far enough, and gets worse with time. Right now it sometimes stucks on second command! Reproducible always on arch, never saw it on other distros. Don't know what more to say, this strange problem hunts me down on arch.

dockland · 2017-08-03 09:02:11

Just for a check, can you run top or perhaps htop and see if any process are running high (long shot, i know)

robg · 2017-08-03 09:05:24

robg wrote:

Could you please post the output of `echo $HISTSIZE`?
Also, does the problem persist if you run `mv .bash_history .bash_history_tmp`? (This will make sure that bash starts a fresh history file. To revert, run `rm .bash_history` and `mv .bash_history_tmp .bash_history`.)

Could you please answer those?

mooncactus · 2017-08-03 09:16:32

`echo $HISTSIZE` gives me 500. Tried to delete history file, entered something like 10 commands and experienced no lag scrolling them! So it seems problem in full history, but why it lags when full? And tried to boot without display manager in TTY, same lags...

Last edited by mooncactus (2017-08-03 09:20:06)

mooncactus · 2017-08-03 09:22:01

System installed on SSD, with no problems in other applications.

robg · 2017-08-03 09:23:49

mooncactus wrote:

`echo $HISTSIZE` gives me 500.

That looks fine.

mooncactus wrote:

Tried to delete history file, entered something like 10 commands and experienced no lag scrolling them! So it seems problem in full history, but why it lags when full?

~~So it does appear to be an issue regarding the size of your history file.~~
One explanation might be an issue involving the size of your history file.
Unfortunately I am not familiar with how bash reads entries from .bash_history but why don't you try setting HISTFILESIZE to some reasonable value for now?

man bash wrote:

HISTFILESIZE - The maximum number of lines contained in the history file. When this variable is assigned a value, the history file is truncated, if necessary, to contain no more than that number of lines by removing the oldest entries. The history file is also truncated to this size after writing it when a shell exits. If the value is 0, the history file is truncated to zero size. Non-numeric values and numeric values less than zero inhibit truncation. The shell sets the default value to the value of HISTSIZE after reading any startup files.

Last edited by robg (2017-08-03 09:28:06)

mooncactus · 2017-08-03 09:31:24

Will try that and report results after some use.

R00KIE · 2017-08-03 09:42:19

A badly configured hosts file or nsswitch can cause trouble but I've never seen it cause trouble in a terminal or tty. How did you install arch?

mooncactus · 2017-08-03 09:55:07

Well, I can consider myself absolutely stupid! The thing is, I wrote some python code and run in terminal, and didn't even realize how much times I repeated same commands! The history file was full of them! So when I scroll, I saw the same command and thought it was stuck I am terribly sorry for taking your time to think on this thread! Suppose all this situation deserves a good laugh.

WorMzy · 2017-08-03 10:27:09

Glad it was nothing serious.

You may want to look into the HISTCONTROL setting, particularly the "ignoredups" value. 'man bash' for details.

mooncactus · 2017-08-03 10:37:10

Thank you! Already done that, "ignoredumps" was exactly for my case

twelveeighty · 2017-08-03 11:55:00

mooncactus wrote:

...didn't even realize how much times I repeated same commands! The history file was full of them!.

I'm late to the party, but my life changed a long time ago when someone pointed out how you can use Ctrl-R in a Bash term, or "history-search-backward" more specifically, if you've changed modes or key bindings. Try it and you'll rarely need to scroll with the arrow keys again.

mooncactus · 2017-08-04 06:56:57

Thanks for the tip! Great feature!

Arch Linux

#1 2017-08-03 07:05:30

Bash history lag [SOLVED]

#2 2017-08-03 08:10:58

Re: Bash history lag [SOLVED]

#3 2017-08-03 08:18:13

Re: Bash history lag [SOLVED]

#4 2017-08-03 08:27:25

Re: Bash history lag [SOLVED]

#5 2017-08-03 08:36:56

Re: Bash history lag [SOLVED]

#6 2017-08-03 08:42:29

Re: Bash history lag [SOLVED]

#7 2017-08-03 08:47:31

Re: Bash history lag [SOLVED]

#8 2017-08-03 08:59:09

Re: Bash history lag [SOLVED]

#9 2017-08-03 09:02:11

Re: Bash history lag [SOLVED]

#10 2017-08-03 09:05:24

Re: Bash history lag [SOLVED]

#11 2017-08-03 09:16:32

Re: Bash history lag [SOLVED]

#12 2017-08-03 09:22:01

Re: Bash history lag [SOLVED]

#13 2017-08-03 09:23:49

Re: Bash history lag [SOLVED]

#14 2017-08-03 09:31:24

Re: Bash history lag [SOLVED]

#15 2017-08-03 09:42:19

Re: Bash history lag [SOLVED]

#16 2017-08-03 09:55:07

Re: Bash history lag [SOLVED]

#17 2017-08-03 10:27:09

Re: Bash history lag [SOLVED]

#18 2017-08-03 10:37:10

Re: Bash history lag [SOLVED]

#19 2017-08-03 11:55:00

Re: Bash history lag [SOLVED]

#20 2017-08-04 06:56:57

Re: Bash history lag [SOLVED]

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