how to clear bash history at logout

yhus · 09-26-2007, 05:46 PM

Hi,

I am running Ubuntu. Is there a way to clear history before turning the PC off? I put "history -c" in .bash_logout, it never been called.

Thank you.

Jim

cmnorton · 09-26-2007, 06:05 PM

rm ~/.bash_history

I found the history command, but not a history -c.

colucix · 09-27-2007, 03:21 AM

A cleaner way is to set HISTFILESIZE equal to 0. You can put

Code:

export HISTFILESIZE=0

in $HOME/.bashrc

kromberg · 09-27-2007, 11:04 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by colucix

A cleaner way is to set HISTFILESIZE equal to 0. You can put

Code:

export HISTFILESIZE=0

in $HOME/.bashrc

That does not saving any history, even when the shell is active. Remove .bash_history in the .bash_logout file as indicated above.

Keith

pwc101 · 09-27-2007, 11:16 AM

This link suggests you could put rm ~/.bash_history in a script in /etc/X11/gdm/PostSession/Default.

Otherwise, changing /etc/init.d/rc.0 to include your rm command should execute it every shutdown (for every reboot, it'd have to be /etc/init.d/rc.6 I believe). See http://ubuntuforums.org/archive/index.php/t-256783.html for more info.

Take care with the last one - messing with the init scripts can lead to non-booting systems. I'd recommend making a backup of all the init.d directory before you do this!

colucix · 09-27-2007, 11:17 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by kromberg

That does not saving any history, even when the shell is active.

Hmmm... the history is kept in memory until you close the shell session. So the last N commands (depending on HISTSIZE) are available for the time the shell is active.

cmnorton · 09-27-2007, 06:08 PM

If I log into my server today, I can count on history tomorrow. Maybe the history is being held a different way, but I didn't add any programming to make that happen.