The difference in $HISTSIZE AND $HISTFILESIZE using backtrack 5

charging-ibis · 09-15-2012, 10:23 PM

Ok, so I have noticed that $HISTSIZE & $HISTFILESIZE and I understand that they show the size of the history file but why dose these two different figures. Here is what I have:

Code:

root@root:/dev# echo $HISTSIZE
1000
root@root:/dev# echo $HISTFILESIZE
2000

Could I get a good explanation so that I can understand the difference between these two variables if they show the file history.

jv2112 · 09-16-2012, 05:58 AM

Lines .vs Commands : Practically speaking not a big difference.

Quote:

$HISTFILESIZE environment variable: 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. The default value is 500.

$HISTSIZE environment variable: The number of commands to remember in the command history (see HISTORY below). The default value is 500.