Another thing you can do is just use 'logger' and the syslog. You kinda have to be comfortable with viewing system logging, though; it's not for everyone - for

Another thing you can do is just use 'logger' and the syslog. You kinda have to be comfortable with viewing system logging, though; it's not for everyone - for example, I'm using sudo below just because I haven't set my user to view systemd's journal yet. $ logger hello $ logger <<EOF > this is a multiline > logging message > EOF $ sudo journalctl -t vacri -- Logs begin at Fri 2017-09-29 10:40:49 AEST, end at Mon 2017-10-02 23:44:13 AEDT Oct 02 23:40:24 myhost vacri[12320]: hello Oct 02 23:48:48 myhost vacri[12460]: this is a multiline Oct 02 23:48:48 myhost vacri[12460]: logging message syslog is good for some use-cases (eg centralisation), and not so good for others. I imagine most people would prefer your directory-of-easily-findable-history.