Where are command line commands stored

Otto-1062 · 12-12-2013, 01:56 PM

From time to time I use the cli and use a command I want to use again but
can't exactly what it was. I know I can up-arrow to try to locate it but
are previous commands stored in a file user can access. Say a "command
stack file".
tia
otto-1062

schneidz · 12-12-2013, 02:00 PM

i think the history command reads from the history file which mite be different in each system:

Code:

[schneidz@hyper clips]$ echo $HISTFILEecho $HISTFILE
/home/schneidz/.bash_history

Shadow_7 · 12-12-2013, 02:48 PM

The .bash_history has your up arrow list of things up to a certain count. If you want to keep some oddities around you might want to make periodic backups of that file.

$ cp .bash_history bh_user_YYYYMMDD.txt

And various ways to cherry pick line items from a large history.

$ cat .bash_history | grep -i "something"

If you want to know where an actual command / application exists

$ which xterm

$ ls -l $(which xterm)

And other tricks of the trade.

chrism01 · 12-12-2013, 08:48 PM

I just use

Code:

history|grep <something>

frankbell · 12-12-2013, 09:01 PM

CTRL-R is a great tool for recycling commands from your history.

See item 2 at this link for an excellent explanation: http://www.thegeekstuff.com/2008/08/...tory/#more-130

suyashjain · 01-13-2014, 05:13 AM

checkout more history tricks

onebuck · 01-13-2014, 06:52 AM

Hi,

Quote:

Originally Posted by Otto-1062

From time to time I use the cli and use a command I want to use again but
can't exactly what it was. I know I can up-arrow to try to locate it but
are previous commands stored in a file user can access. Say a "command
stack file".
tia
otto-1062

Other than history, I setup my '.bash_profile' & '.bashrc' for frequently used commands as 'alias';

Code:

sample .bash_profile;   
~$ cat .bash_profile 
#-----------------cut-----------------   
# .bash_profile
#08-30-06 12:21

# Source .bashrc
if [ -f ~/.bashrc ]; then
. ~/.bashrc
fi

#-----------------cut end--------------

Code:

 cat .bashrc
#-----------------cut-------------------

#.bashrc
#08-30-06 12:20 

# Add bin to path
export PATH="$PATH:$HOME/bin"

# Dynamic resizing
shopt -s checkwinsize
#
#save bash history so as to share

shopt -s histappend
PROMPT_COMMAND='history -a'

# Custom prompt 
#PS1='\[\033[01;32m\]\u@\h\[\033[00m\]:\[\033[01;34m\]\w\[\033[00m\]\$ ' 

#08-29-06 11:40 
if [ `id -un` = root ]; then 
PS1='\[\033[1;31m\]\h:\w\$\[\033[0m\] ' 
else
PS1='\[\033[1;32m\]\h:\w\$\[\033[0m\] ' 
fi 
# 
# Add color 
eval `dircolors -b` 
#Terminus is a very nice Unicode font for the Linux console

#
#if [ $TERM = "linux" ]; then
# setfont ter-v16n
#fi

# User defined aliases
alias cls='clear'
alias clls='clear; ls'
alias ll='ls -l'
alias lsa='ls -A'
alias lsg='ls | grep'
alias lsp='ls -1 /var/log/packages/ > package-list'
alias na='nano'
alias web='links -g -download-dir ~/ www.google.com'

#08-29-06 11:50

#To clean up and cover your tracks once you log off
#Depending on your version of BASH, you might have to use
# the other form of this command
 trap "rm -f ~$LOGNAME/.bash_history" 0

#The older KSH-style form
#trap 0 rm -f ~$LOGNAME/.bash_history


#-----------------cut end--------------

'history' is great but so is setting up alias for frequently used commands. I let users modify to suit their needs.
Hope this helps!

Habitual · 01-13-2014, 09:17 AM

I use

Code:

bind '"\e[A": history-search-backward'
bind '"\e[B": history-search-forward'

in every .bashrc I have control over.

schneidz · 01-13-2014, 12:39 PM

i used to do this to have to modify history commands with special characters on my old fone:
http://www.linuxquestions.org/questi...1/#post3698171

Otto-1062 · 03-02-2014, 07:09 AM

With some further research I found that
typing:

$ history

will show all previous commands.
To execute your command type:

$ !item number # exclamation point item number

Thanks all,
otto-1062

onebuck · 03-02-2014, 09:48 AM

Hi,

If you have aliases setup in '~/.bashrc' then to remind you of the list you can type 'alias' at the 'cli' to see what has been setup.

A '~/.bashrc' with aliases is very useful and does provide useful actions along with history.

Hope this helps!

replica9000 · 03-02-2014, 08:24 PM

You could use

Code:

history | grep <insert command here>

You could add or modify this in your ~/.bashrc file to control the history of commands.

Code:

# Number of commands to keep in memory while in your bash session.
# They will be written to the ~/.bash_history file when you end your session.
HISTSIZE=1000
# The max number of lines that ~/.my_bash_history file will contain.
HISTFILESIZE=2000

Default is 500 for both.

To make automatic backups of the commands you use, you could also put a small script or command at the end of your ~/.bashrc to run every time you open a terminal.

Code:

# This will read the history, append it to a file, then remove the duplicates.
cat ~/.bash_history >> ~/.my_bash_history && sort -u ~/.my_bash_history -o ~/.my_bash_history

# This will check if it's Sunday, if so, check if we've already made a backup today.
# If not, we'll copy the above mentioned file and append the date to the backup name.
if [ `date +%a` = "Sun" ]; then
  if [ ! -f ~/.my_bash_history_backup_`date +%F` ]; then
    cp ~/.my_bash_history ~/.my_bash_history_backup_`date +%F`
  fi
fi

yooden · 03-03-2014, 06:59 AM

One of the more useful features of modern shells is insert-last-word (bound to Alt-. by default). Example:

Code:

# ls
[lots of different files]
# ls *.deleteme
[only the files I want to delete]
# rm <insert-last-word>