automagically removing duplicate commands from bash history

[GDixon]

Does it annoy you to scroll through a ton of prior commands that are duplicates when in a terminal?

add this to your /home/"user Name/.bashrc to erase/delete duplicate commands like so.

I added it below my history size and also changed the history size to something smaller.

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# for setting history length see HISTSIZE and HISTFILESIZE in bash(1)
HISTSIZE=50
HISTFILESIZE=2000

# erase/delete duplicates in history
HISTCONTROL=erasedups

[m_pav]

Wow, I couldn't imagine having a history that only has 50 lines, I need most of what I have, but purging dupes is a great tip.

[joany]

Re: Bash command history in the terminal

How do you show that?

[kmathern]

Re: Bash command history in the terminal

How do you show that?

I'm assuming he's talking about the history you get when pressing the up arrow key (goes back in history), or down arrow key (goes forward). The ~/.bash_history file contains the full history. You can also search your bash history using <Ctrl>+<R>.

As far as removing the duplicates goes, I prefer to keep the entire history.

[Adrian]

You can also search your bash history using <Ctrl>+<R>.

That works, but I prefer to assign in ~/.inputrc the commands to arrow up and arrow down:

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"\e[A": history-search-backward
"\e[B": history-search-forward

I find it very convenient, I just type the beginning of the command and then arrow up, I almost never type the entire command and arrow up/down is a bit easier to use than CTRL-R. It also doesn't matter if the commands appear multiple times in the history...

[joany]

Re: Bash command history in the terminal

How do you show that?

I'm assuming he's talking about the history you get when pressing the up arrow key (goes back in history), or down arrow key (goes forward). The ~/.bash_history file contains the full history. You can also search your bash history using <Ctrl>+<R>.

As far as removing the duplicates goes, I prefer to keep the entire history.

That's cool. I never knew that feature existed. Thanks!

[GDixon]

I keep the normal users low but not the roots terminal, seems a bigger percentage of my bash work is in a root terminal.

[m_pav]

How do you show that?

Type history and press return

You can also highlight a previous command and centre click anywhere in the terminal window to drop it in and press return to run it. user and root history are separated, so you won't see one from the other.