history Command Cheat Sheet

The history command lists the commands previously executed by the user. It is a shell builtin (Bash, Zsh) essential for auditing and improving CLI productivity.

Basic Usage

View History

history

View Last N Commands

history 10

Searching and Expansion

Reverse Search (Ctrl+R)

Press Ctrl+R and start typing. The shell will find the most recent matching command. - Press Ctrl+R again to cycle backwards. - Press Enter to run found command. - Press Right Arrow to edit.

Run by Number (!)

!450

(Executes command #450 from the history list).

Run Last Command (!!)

!!

Useful when you forget sudo:

sudo !!

Run Last Command Starting String (!string)

!vim

(Runs the last command that started with vim).

Search and Replace (Quick Substitution)

^old^new

Re-runs the previous command replacing the first occurrence of old with new.

Example:

echo "Hello Wolrd"
^Wolrd^World
# Output: echo "Hello World"

Managing History

Clear Current Session History (-c)

history -c

Delete Specific Line (-d)

Remove a specific usage (e.g., one containing a password).

history -d 501

Write History to Disk (-w)

Save current session commands to ~/.bash_history immediately.

history -w

Read History from Disk (-r)

history -r

Configuration (Environment Variables)

Add these to ~/.bashrc to customize behavior.

Add Timestamps

By default, history doesn't show WHEN a command was run.

export HISTTIMEFORMAT="%F %T "

Now history outputs: 1001 2026-02-14 12:00:00 ls -la

Increase Size

export HISTSIZE=10000       # Memory buffer
export HISTFILESIZE=20000   # Disk file

Ignore Duplicates and Spaces

export HISTCONTROL=ignoreboth

- ignorespace: Commands starting with a space are not saved. - ignoredups: Consecutive duplicate commands are not saved.

Ignore Specific Commands

export HISTIGNORE="ls:pwd:history:exit"

Security Best Practice

Prevent Secrets in History: If HISTCONTROL=ignorespace is on, simply add a space before running a sensitive command.

 mysqldump -pSecretPassword

(Note the leading space).

Notes

History behavior differs slightly between shells (Bash vs Zsh).
Zsh stores history in ~/.zsh_history and has more advanced sharing options (SHARE_HISTORY).