I’ve been using the Bash history since a long time, but in a rather limited way. I’d use the “history” command, !<num> to execute command again, !* to get all parameters of the last command, and Ctrl-r to match previous commands.
This article by symkat showed me a lot more interesting history features.
Here’s my personal list of what a productive developer needs to know about Bash history:
history: Show the history in case you get lost.!<num>: Execute line again, where is the number shown byhistory.- Ctrl-p: Browse the history backwards. Also on cursor-up, but doesn’t make you leave touch typing position.
- Ctrl-r: Search backwards. Invaluable. Matches can anchor anywhere. Pressing it repeatedly shows older matches.
!$: Substitutes for the last word of the previous line. Very useful for doing something else with the same thing. For example, you might first sayls -R very/long/path, thendu !$to show the directory’s size.- Esc-. or Alt-. (that’s Alt-PERIOD): Like
!$, but Bash inserts the word into your current line right away, so you can check or modify it.
Also, setting the HISTCONTROL environment variable to “Ignoreboth” to ignore duplicate history entries and commands starting with a space is a must.
Tags: bash, Nitty Gritty, shell, tools
