5 ms·

If that's your use case, here's another game changer (one line bashrc change to make bash_history changes immediately, rather than upon shell exit, e.g. when yo

If that's your use case, here's another game changer (one line bashrc change to make bash_history changes immediately, rather than upon shell exit, e.g. when you end your tmux session): https://web.archive.org/web/20090815205011/http://www.cuberick.com/2008/11/update-bash-history-in-realtime.html https://web.archive.org/web/20090815205011/http://www.cuberi...

drekipus 4y ago
Oh wow thank you for this.
CuteDepravity 4y ago
Meta question : do you keep the archive.org link of the article in your favorite or did you manually look up the link before posting? Or maybe an extension that does that automatically?
yesenadam 4y ago
Thank you!! Why on earth isn't that the default. It always seemed weird that with multiple bash windows open, the commands from most of them weren't added to the history.
- noxvilleza 4y ago
  My guesses are that it's on-close so you can follow the per-shell history slightly easier (rather than it being interleaved from multiple shells?), or reducing disk writes?
  - bombcar 4y ago
    They don’t interlace which can be nice
- dtgriscom 4y ago
  I often have three or more terminals open, doing different tasks in each; I also often have cycles of work where I'll repeat the last three commands again (three up-arrows and a return). This breaks if one terminal's commands get inserted into another terminal's history.
  - aidenn0 4y ago
    My solution is I immediately record the commands, but do not load them. That way new terminals get all the history, but old terminals keep their flow.
    - geysersam 4y ago
      But if you go back later, the chains of commands from different terminals are interlaced right?
      - aidenn0 4y ago
        To some degree; it depends on the amount of multitasking. I mainly care about which commands in which order when I'm looking at recent commands from that terminal; otherwise I use C-r.
  - flyaway123 4y ago
    Comment from the author: "Ted, the change I suggest doesn't affect the independence of your sessions as you suggest. Each shell maintains a unique history in memory so modifying the history file has no affect on running terminals. The only time the history file is read is when you start a new terminal. I recommend you try my suggestion. Really, all I am doing is eliminating the race condition that causes the bash history file to have inconsistent data. Thanks for the feedback."
    - cstrahan 4y ago
      Exactly this. If you do want to load the history persisted from other shells into the current one, all you have to do (if memory serves) is: $ history -r
- usefulcat 4y ago
  It is very useful just be careful when switching between shells and hitting the up arrow to get the previous command, as you may get something from another shell.
  - mkl 4y ago
    That will only happen if PROMPT_COMMAND also contains "history -c; history -r", right? "history -a" just saves it, but "history -c; history -r" clears memory history and reloads from disk.
    - usefulcat 4y ago
      Yes, that's correct. I overlooked that detail while reading the link on a phone, where the text is quite small.
RustyRussell 4y ago
FWIW I get a 503 on that URL. Any chance someone can give me that magic one-liner?
- jdhendrickson 4y ago
  Not sure what that link had as it's dead for me as well but... PROMPT_COMMAND='history -a' Has always worked for me. Goes in your .bashrc from the FM PROMPT_COMMAND ¶ If this variable is set, and is an array, the value of each set element is interpreted as a command to execute before printing the primary prompt ($PS1). If this is set but not an array variable, its value is used as a command to execute instead.
- e12e 4y ago
  Looks like it is still down - but see eg: https://askubuntu.com/questions/67283/is-it-possible-to-make-writing-to-bash-history-immediate#67306 https://askubuntu.com/questions/67283/is-it-possible-to-make... To wit: > It says to put those commands in the .bashrc config: shopt -s histappend PROMPT_COMMAND="history -a;$PROMPT_COMMAND" > The first command changes the history file mode to append and the second configures the history -a command to be run at each shell prompt. The -a option makes history immediately write the current/new lines to the history file. I used to have something like this set up on my Linux laptop - the downside is that seperate shell/terminals/windows/tabs don't keep seperate history - so if you eg start a server in shell one (rails s), start editor in two - then go back to one and ctrl-c out - up arrow will now give you "vim" not "rails s". The problem compounds if you ping, or curl in another shell etc.
dbtc 4y ago
for zsh setopt inc_append_history
Tcepsa 4y ago
This is literally going to change my life! T_T
McUsr 4y ago
I have used that for years, but there are downsides to the approach as well. So, you revisit a window, and you want to start from where you left, but now, you might maybe wade through 100's of commands before you get back to that point in time. There are fixes for this too of course, my point is, that it doesn't come without side effects, and that is maybe why it isn't set as default behaviour. At least in a pre 'fzf/atuin/smenu' world. I prefer smenu's history search, even if I consider myself a heavy fzf user.
CorrectHorseBat 4y ago
I did that once (or it might have been something similar with the same effect, don't remember) and after a while it made my terminals super slow.

drekipus 4y ago

Oh wow thank you for this.

CuteDepravity 4y ago

Meta question : do you keep the archive.org link of the article in your favorite or did you manually look up the link before posting? Or maybe an extension that does that automatically?

yesenadam 4y ago

Thank you!! Why on earth isn't that the default. It always seemed weird that with multiple bash windows open, the commands from most of them weren't added to the history.

noxvilleza 4y ago
My guesses are that it's on-close so you can follow the per-shell history slightly easier (rather than it being interleaved from multiple shells?), or reducing disk writes?
- bombcar 4y ago
  They don’t interlace which can be nice
dtgriscom 4y ago
I often have three or more terminals open, doing different tasks in each; I also often have cycles of work where I'll repeat the last three commands again (three up-arrows and a return). This breaks if one terminal's commands get inserted into another terminal's history.
- aidenn0 4y ago
  My solution is I immediately record the commands, but do not load them. That way new terminals get all the history, but old terminals keep their flow.
  - geysersam 4y ago
    But if you go back later, the chains of commands from different terminals are interlaced right?
    - aidenn0 4y ago
      To some degree; it depends on the amount of multitasking. I mainly care about which commands in which order when I'm looking at recent commands from that terminal; otherwise I use C-r.
- flyaway123 4y ago
  Comment from the author: "Ted, the change I suggest doesn't affect the independence of your sessions as you suggest. Each shell maintains a unique history in memory so modifying the history file has no affect on running terminals. The only time the history file is read is when you start a new terminal. I recommend you try my suggestion. Really, all I am doing is eliminating the race condition that causes the bash history file to have inconsistent data. Thanks for the feedback."
  - cstrahan 4y ago
    Exactly this. If you do want to load the history persisted from other shells into the current one, all you have to do (if memory serves) is: $ history -r
usefulcat 4y ago
It is very useful just be careful when switching between shells and hitting the up arrow to get the previous command, as you may get something from another shell.
- mkl 4y ago
  That will only happen if PROMPT_COMMAND also contains "history -c; history -r", right? "history -a" just saves it, but "history -c; history -r" clears memory history and reloads from disk.
  - usefulcat 4y ago
    Yes, that's correct. I overlooked that detail while reading the link on a phone, where the text is quite small.

RustyRussell 4y ago

FWIW I get a 503 on that URL. Any chance someone can give me that magic one-liner?

jdhendrickson 4y ago
Not sure what that link had as it's dead for me as well but... PROMPT_COMMAND='history -a' Has always worked for me. Goes in your .bashrc from the FM PROMPT_COMMAND ¶ If this variable is set, and is an array, the value of each set element is interpreted as a command to execute before printing the primary prompt ($PS1). If this is set but not an array variable, its value is used as a command to execute instead.
e12e 4y ago
Looks like it is still down - but see eg: https://askubuntu.com/questions/67283/is-it-possible-to-make-writing-to-bash-history-immediate#67306 https://askubuntu.com/questions/67283/is-it-possible-to-make... To wit: > It says to put those commands in the .bashrc config: shopt -s histappend PROMPT_COMMAND="history -a;$PROMPT_COMMAND" > The first command changes the history file mode to append and the second configures the history -a command to be run at each shell prompt. The -a option makes history immediately write the current/new lines to the history file. I used to have something like this set up on my Linux laptop - the downside is that seperate shell/terminals/windows/tabs don't keep seperate history - so if you eg start a server in shell one (rails s), start editor in two - then go back to one and ctrl-c out - up arrow will now give you "vim" not "rails s". The problem compounds if you ping, or curl in another shell etc.

dbtc 4y ago

for zsh setopt inc_append_history

Tcepsa 4y ago

This is literally going to change my life! T_T

McUsr 4y ago

I have used that for years, but there are downsides to the approach as well. So, you revisit a window, and you want to start from where you left, but now, you might maybe wade through 100's of commands before you get back to that point in time. There are fixes for this too of course, my point is, that it doesn't come without side effects, and that is maybe why it isn't set as default behaviour. At least in a pre 'fzf/atuin/smenu' world. I prefer smenu's history search, even if I consider myself a heavy fzf user.

CorrectHorseBat 4y ago

I did that once (or it might have been something similar with the same effect, don't remember) and after a while it made my terminals super slow.