[SOLVED] Terminal doesn't remember last commands

Daerun · 2011-03-10 23:27:13

I noticed this problem yesterday: terminal only remembers commands I entered three days ago, starting today, last of them being the pacman -Syu I performed on tuesday. From that point onward, it "forgets" all commands every time I close it

Last edited by Daerun (2011-03-11 23:22:04)

xxxspuddy · 2011-03-10 23:38:54

Which shell are you using? If bash, do you have write permission to ~/.bash_history?

Allan · 2011-03-10 23:40:47

Known upstream issue. Exit your terminal using "exit" or "ctrl+d" rather than closing the window.

Daerun · 2011-03-11 09:01:58

Allan wrote:

Known upstream issue. Exit your terminal using "exit" or "ctrl+d" rather than closing the window.

Really? lol But How is it that older commands are there? I've always closed it via mouse...

Allan · 2011-03-11 09:17:22

It started with bash-4.2

blasse · 2011-03-11 11:35:28

Add to your .bashrc

export PROMPT_COMMAND="history -a; history -n; $PROMPT_COMMAND"

It will mix history between open terminal windows, but it will also remember history

darkbeanies · 2011-03-11 17:08:53

blasse wrote:

Add to your .bashrc
export PROMPT_COMMAND="history -a; history -n; $PROMPT_COMMAND" 
It will mix history between open terminal windows, but it will also remember history

Hooray! As a habitual button clicker, it was driving me mad trying to remember to exit every time. Thanks for this useful tip!

Daerun · 2011-03-11 23:20:53

Yup, that works, thanks

Last edited by Daerun (2011-03-11 23:21:08)

beber75 · 2011-03-15 01:40:37

@blasse your amazing, thanks for the tip.

mhertz · 2011-03-15 09:36:46

The 'history' command accepts concatenated parameters, so instead of 'history -a; history -n', you can just use 'history -an'. Also, the preceding 'export' is redundant in this occasion.

Btw, I myself always use 'history -a' as 'PROMPT_COMMAND', which makes new terminals opened inherit the history of the current terminals running, but I do not like the 'history -n' option, which will make all open terminals continously inherit each others history.

It's a matter of personal preference obviously, but check out the following example:

When for example you open a terminal just to start some server. Then you open another terminal and play around for a while. Then you want to restart the server process, so you go back to that terminal and Ctrl+C it and hit UP to go back in your history to re-run the server command. But oops, now a lot of commands are in between you and the one you want...

The 'history -a' command will overcome the above problem, but if you don't care about isolating each terminals own history from the others, then 'history -an' makes better sence... (imho, of course...)

Both ways will obviously also fix this bash issue, as it's the 'history -a' option which fixes it i.e. writes the history to file upon each return/enter press...

zippy · 2011-03-15 19:14:16

$ history -an
bash: history: cannot use more than one of -anrw

mhertz · 2011-03-16 11:40:51

@zippy + all

I apologise for posting wrong information, and thanks for the correction!

I had read on another forum someone stating that you could just use 'history -an' instead of 'history -a; history -n', and I just remembered that, when I saw this thread. I always myself just prefer to use 'history -a', so I haden't tested the 'history -an' command personally and just took the tip of that other forum to be true...

Again, sorry about that!

Edit: I got it from here: http://briancarper.net/blog/248/

Quoth Amos on June 11, 2010 @ 4:04 PM PDT
Thanks for the tip.
A couple of small corrections
1.It's not necessary to "export" PROMPT_COMMAND (i.e. it doesn't need to be set as an environment variable). It's enough to do "PROMPT_COMMAND='history -n'".
2.If you want to keep running both then you can just set PROMPT_COMMAND to "history -an". Although after reading the comments here I agree that the -n is going to be annoying.

Last edited by mhertz (2011-03-16 12:03:06)

Arch Linux

#1 2011-03-10 23:27:13

[SOLVED] Terminal doesn't remember last commands

#2 2011-03-10 23:38:54

Re: [SOLVED] Terminal doesn't remember last commands

#3 2011-03-10 23:40:47

Re: [SOLVED] Terminal doesn't remember last commands

#4 2011-03-11 09:01:58

Re: [SOLVED] Terminal doesn't remember last commands

#5 2011-03-11 09:17:22

Re: [SOLVED] Terminal doesn't remember last commands

#6 2011-03-11 11:35:28

Re: [SOLVED] Terminal doesn't remember last commands

#7 2011-03-11 17:08:53

Re: [SOLVED] Terminal doesn't remember last commands

#8 2011-03-11 23:20:53

Re: [SOLVED] Terminal doesn't remember last commands

#9 2011-03-15 01:40:37

Re: [SOLVED] Terminal doesn't remember last commands

#10 2011-03-15 09:36:46

Re: [SOLVED] Terminal doesn't remember last commands

#11 2011-03-15 19:14:16

Re: [SOLVED] Terminal doesn't remember last commands

#12 2011-03-16 11:40:51

Re: [SOLVED] Terminal doesn't remember last commands

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