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The Linux shell keeps track of every command you issue and can search for you to issue the same command more than once. Your productivity can increase a lot after you learn how to use the Linux history command. In Linux, we can see the history of the commands we have executed in the terminal using the history command. In your .bashrc file, you can specify the maximum number of items that BASH should keep in its history. Most Linux users regularly use the command line. We use command lines for a variety of purposes, including data management, server control, and installing new programs. But how many of the commands we use regularly can we remember when we need to use one that we last used some time ago? We are fortunate to have a useful Linux utility at our disposal. The history command will be a useful tool for you, whether you’re a novice who needs help remembering previously used commands or an experienced user who doesn’t want to risk entering a complex command incorrectly.
How to view command history in Linux
$ which historywhat: no history in (/usr/local/bin:/usr/bin:/bin:/usr/games:/usr/local/sbin)
Your computer can’t find the history command because it’s a built-in keyword of your shell. Because it’s written in the shell you’re using, there may be some variation in history behavior depending on whether you’re using Bash, tcsh, Zsh, dash, fish, ksh, etc. This article is based on Bash’s history implementation, so some features may not work in other shells. However, most of the basic functions are the same.
history 101
To see the history in action, open a terminal program on your Linux installation and type:
$ history
Here is the response I got:
1 clear2 ls -al3 sudo dnf update -y4 history
The history command shows a list of the commands entered since you started the session. The joy of the story is that now you can play any of them using a command like:
$ !3
The !3 command at the prompt tells the shell to rerun the command at line 3 of the history list. You could also access that command by entering:
$ !sudo dnf
This tells history to look for the last command that matches the pattern you provided (in this case, that pattern is dnf) and run it.
Search history
You can also use history to rerun the last command you entered by typing !!. By combining it with grep, you can search for commands that match a text pattern, or by using it with tail, you can find the last commands you ran. For example:
$ history | grep dnf 3 sudo dnf update -y 5 history | dnf grep
$ history | queue -n 34 history5 history | grep dnf6 history | queue -n 3
Another way to access this search functionality is to type Ctrl-R to invoke a recursive search of your command history. After typing this, the notice changes to:
(reverse-i-lookup)`’:
You can now start typing a command and matching commands will be displayed for you to execute by pressing Return or Enter.
Change an executed command
You can also use history to rerun a command with a different syntax. You can review history with history. For example, if I want to change my previous command history | grep dnf to history | grep ssh, I can run the following at the prompt:
$ ^dnf^ssh^
The command is executed again, but with dnf replaced by ssh. In other words, this command is executed:
$ history | grep ssh
deleting history
There may come a time when you want to delete some or all of the commands in your history file. If you want to remove a particular command, enter history -d
Next steps
There are a number of other things you can do with the story:
- Set the size of your history buffer to a certain number of commands
- Record the date and time of each line in the history
- Prevent certain commands from being recorded in the history
Final words: How to See Command History in Linux
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