Search (not Browser) history, where is the file located in Firefox ?
 

Is it possible to locate the Firefox file that retains "Search" history (not particularly "Browser" history)?

I have lost a hardcopy list of authors and titles of books/ebooks that I search the web for. However, most of the time when I would enter a name or title a drop down list would have that entry I wanted, and I could just click on it. That drop down list is what I am calling "Search" history.

I'd like to find that file and print it out.

Using Ubuntu 8.10.

Thank you,

Firefox stores its search bar history with all the other form history in an SQLite database in the 'formhistory.sqlite' file in your profile directory. Your profile directory is in '~/.mozilla/firefox'. It has a name of the form 'random-id.name'.

Running the following command from inside your profile directory will dump your search bar history to the file 'searches.txt' in your home directory.

Elemecca,

Thank you for that detailed reply!!!

I had a look inside 'formhistory.sqlite' with a hex editor just before running your code and it looks like the information I'm looking for does reside there as you correctly stated. The file is large, as it should be with all the searching I've done.

With one exception the code worked wonderfully and the resulting file 'searches.txt' was created in my home directory.

However, the resulting, 'searches.txt', gave me only two very small lines which were indeed past search-bar searches. Any hints as to how I can dump all the info in that file to a text file? Possibly use other 'fieldnames' since much of the searching is done on other websites using their search-bar. (I have no idea of other fieldname options)

Thank you kindly for your efforts on my behalf, and have a Great Day !

Thanks to Elemecca my search list has been restored !!!

Elemecca put me onto a command line argument which resulted in the creation of readable information from the 'formhistory.sqlite' file.

To get all the information desired the original code above was altered to:

echo "SELECT value FROM moz_formhistory;" | sqlite3 formhistory.sqlite > ~/searches.txt

This created the file 'searches.txt' with all the search history.

Thanks again Elemecca, without your input this would remain an unsolved problem.

:-)

You're welcome. Please edit your original post and add "[SOLVED]" to the beginning of the subject. That way people looking to help know you no longer need it and people looking for solutions know you found one.

Absolutely ! :-)

Thanks again !

Chip

Hi elmecca, can you pls help.
I am trying get a list of all the browser history. and excuting the search on Formhistory only shows couple of lines of text and not the entire content. is ther another sqlite database for browser history?

may thanks in advance

tiggertie,

Have you tried this from the CLI:


echo "SELECT value FROM moz_formhistory;" | sqlite3 formhistory.sqlite > ~/searches.txt

Thanks S chips for the fast reply.
Yes I did. Unfortunately I have a rescued linux partition image, which i have mounted as ext2 file system. I traversed through the directory, and executed this query, since content is so less, I am assuming there must be more browser content. ANy help?