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Another issue is that it looks like would start a new history file only when a new shell is started. Some people log in fresh every day, but I've got terminal

Another issue is that it looks like would start a new history file only when a new shell is started. Some people log in fresh every day, but I've got terminal windows on my home machine that have been sitting around for many months... I guess you'd have to set the history-size etc large enough to hopefully last for the maximum expected shell run-time. EDIT: hmm, the man page says you can just unset HISTFILESIZE or set it to a non-numeric/negative value to avoid truncating the history file at all.

michaelhoffman 11y ago
Yeah, I have this as well: export HISTSIZE=65535 # why not? export HISTFILESIZE=65535 export HISTCONTROL=ignoredups but now I'm wondering if I should unset `HISTFILESIZE` insteead.
- myhf 11y ago
  It can also be nice to use HISTCONTROL=ignorespace If you're planning on keeping a lot of history, ignorespace makes it easy to avoid inserting commands with sensitive info. A well-placed $(cat) can work too. $ PASSWORD=hunter2 # sensitive info doesn't go into history $ curl -O http://name:$PASSWORD@server/path # command with correct syntax does go into history