Mastering the Bash History

Posted by suvi under Linux

The Bourne Again Shell, better known as bash, is the default for most Linux distributions. It’s extremely powerful as far as command shells go, and holds all kinds of nifty tricks for those willing to learn. One of the best features is, in my opinion, the command history system.

There are many options to use with the bash history, some of them I use nearly every time I open a command shell. Today I’ll be covering some of the most useful aspects of the history, but I certainly won’t be able to cover them all.

Up/Down Arrows

Many of you probably know this one, but for anyone who doesn’t, it’ll make your life a lot easier. Any time you’re in the command shell, simply use the up and down arrows on your keyboard to move through the list of previously entered commands. Next time you enter a long command that turns out to have a typo, you don’t have to retype the whole thing just hit the up arrow and make whatever edits are needed.

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