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Better Bash History (2012)

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Re: Better Bash History (2012)

#21

Post by dllthomas »

aaronharnly wrote: post #3

I set up my bash config to store history separately for each working directory (ie separate history files that I store under a $HOME/.bash_history_d directory) – so as I cd into a project directory, the history is populated with the commands that I've run within that directory . I find this super-helpful to remind me of the context for projects – cd in, then up-arrow to whatever that command is I usually run to launc…

I do something similar, but instead of current directory I have a notion of context that is carried by an environment variable set in a GNU screen process (and therefore inherited by its children) which drives logic in my .bashrc.

https://github.com/dlthomas/config-files

Re: Better Bash History (2012)

#22

Post by pkaye »

We have some servers where the user home directory is on nfs. To keep separate history for each server, I add the following to .profile.

export HISTFILE="${HOME}/.bash_history.$(hostname)"

Re: Better Bash History (2012)

#23

Post by dasl »

aaronharnly wrote: post #3

I set up my bash config to store history separately for each working directory (ie separate history files that I store under a $HOME/.bash_history_d directory) – so as I cd into a project directory, the history is populated with the commands that I've run within that directory . I find this super-helpful to remind me of the context for projects – cd in, then up-arrow to whatever that command is I usually run to launc…

I use zsh, and I have a thing in my profile that skips writing any `cd` command to history. Instead, it will rewrite the command using the absolute path of the directory I `cd`'d into and write that to history.

Thus, all of the `cd` commands that get written to my history use absolute paths and are re-usable no matter where I am.

It would be cool if this sort of functionality were generalizable to all commands where you type a relative path, not just `cd`.

https://github.com/dasl-/settings/blob/3143bbfe23bd75c3e35c7...

Re: Better Bash History (2012)

#24

Post by bhaak »

I just recently stumbled over https://spin.atomicobject.com/2016/05/28/log-bash-history/

Using PROMPT_COMMAND to log every command in a separate timestamped log file. This allows you to use a much better format than bash history has to be in.

Easily readable to see what you've been doing and extremly efficient to grep for.

Has been discussed on HN before: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=11806553

Re: Better Bash History (2012)

#25

Post by smacke »

dasl wrote: post #23
aaronharnly wrote: post #3

I set up my bash config to store history separately for each working directory (ie separate history files that I store under a $HOME/.bash_history_d directory) – so as I cd into a project directory, the history is populated with the commands that I've run within that directory . I find this super-helpful to remind me of the context for projects – cd in, then up-arrow to whatever that command is I usually run to launc…

I use zsh, and I have a thing in my profile that skips writing any `cd` command to history. Instead, it will rewrite the command using the absolute path of the directory I `cd`'d into and write that to history. Thus, all of the `cd` commands that get written to my history use absolute paths and are re-usable no matter where I am. It would be cool if this sort of functionality were generalizable to all commands where…

You might enjoy checking out 'fasd', which, among other things, creates an alias ('zz') with autocomplete functionality for changing to frequently-used directories.

https://github.com/clvv/fasd

Re: Better Bash History (2012)

#26

Post by dual_basis »

dasl wrote: post #23
aaronharnly wrote: post #3

I set up my bash config to store history separately for each working directory (ie separate history files that I store under a $HOME/.bash_history_d directory) – so as I cd into a project directory, the history is populated with the commands that I've run within that directory . I find this super-helpful to remind me of the context for projects – cd in, then up-arrow to whatever that command is I usually run to launc…

I use zsh, and I have a thing in my profile that skips writing any `cd` command to history. Instead, it will rewrite the command using the absolute path of the directory I `cd`'d into and write that to history. Thus, all of the `cd` commands that get written to my history use absolute paths and are re-usable no matter where I am. It would be cool if this sort of functionality were generalizable to all commands where…

In fish, suggested autocompletions are contextual. For example, if I am in /home/dual_basis/projectA and I type `cd some/subdir` then a bunch of time goes by when I come back to /home/dual_basis/projectA and start typing `cd` it will suggest `cd some/subdir`, even if I have typed a bunch of other `cd` commands while in other directories.

This isn't specific to `cd` commands either. It's useful if you are `rsync`ing different directories to different places, or checkout different `git` branches, etc.

Re: Better Bash History (2012)

#27

Post by dual_basis »

dllthomas wrote: post #21
aaronharnly wrote: post #3

I set up my bash config to store history separately for each working directory (ie separate history files that I store under a $HOME/.bash_history_d directory) – so as I cd into a project directory, the history is populated with the commands that I've run within that directory . I find this super-helpful to remind me of the context for projects – cd in, then up-arrow to whatever that command is I usually run to launc…

I do something similar, but instead of current directory I have a notion of context that is carried by an environment variable set in a GNU screen process (and therefore inherited by its children) which drives logic in my .bashrc. https://github.com/dlthomas/config-files

Fish does this by default (and much more as well).

Re: Better Bash History (2012)

#28

Post by Yen »

aaronharnly wrote: post #3

I set up my bash config to store history separately for each working directory (ie separate history files that I store under a $HOME/.bash_history_d directory) – so as I cd into a project directory, the history is populated with the commands that I've run within that directory . I find this super-helpful to remind me of the context for projects – cd in, then up-arrow to whatever that command is I usually run to launc…

I've done the same thing, and I've found it super helpful.

My particular configuration is at https://github.com/YenTheFirst/dotfiles/blob/master/.bash_cd...

90% of the time, the bash history is super relevant to the current context. A small amount of the time, I remember that I issued a command, but not in which directory - in these cases, I can just search the history directory, and get both the context of what the command was, and also where I was when I originally issued it.

Re: Better Bash History (2012)

#29

Post by jefftk »

I do:

    promptFunc() {
      # right before prompting for the
      # next command, save the previous
      # command in a file.
      echo "$(date +%Y-%m-%d--%H-%M-%S) \
        $(hostname) $PWD $(history 1)" \
        >> ~/.full_history
    }
    PROMPT_COMMAND=promptFunc
This is in addition to standard bash history, and is much more reliable. Being able to see not only what command I ran but what directory I was in and when I ran it is very useful.

(I wrote about this here: https://www.jefftk.com/p/you-should-be-logging-shell-history)

Re: Better Bash History (2012)

#30

Post by naggie »

I have a global bash history, having set up bash/zsh to [immediately share without any annoying race conditions.][2] I use FZF mapped to CTRL+R to search through my history.

The unique thing is that I use a [python script (in my dotfiles)][1] to clean the history in a more advanced way than is possible with HISTIGNORE.

The script removes duplicates, leaving the most recent copy and removes lines matching several regexes.

[1]: https://github.com/naggie/dotfiles/blob/master/scripts/clean... [2]: https://github.com/naggie/dotfiles/blob/master/home/.bashrc#...

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