https://mrtomlinux.org/tags/terminal/ Recent content in Terminal on Linux Café Hugo en Thu, 25 Jun 2026 08:23:45 +0200 https://mrtomlinux.org/post/2026-06-25-taming-my-terminal-history-customizing-bash-h/ Thu, 25 Jun 2026 08:23:45 +0200 https://mrtomlinux.org/post/2026-06-25-taming-my-terminal-history-customizing-bash-h/ <h2 id="introduction-to-terminal-history">Introduction to Terminal History</h2> <p>I&rsquo;ve gotten pretty used to relying on my terminal history to recall previously executed commands. But let&rsquo;s be honest, over time this history can become a mess with unnecessary entries, making it tough to find what I need. In this article, I&rsquo;ll cover how to customize Bash history behavior to reduce clutter and improve productivity.</p> <h2 id="understanding-bash-history">Understanding Bash History</h2> <p>Bash history is stored in a file specified by the <code>HISTFILE</code> environment variable, which defaults to <code>~/.bash_history</code>. Each time a command is executed, it gets appended to this file. The <code>HISTSIZE</code> variable determines the maximum number of commands stored in memory, while <code>HISTFILESIZE</code> sets the maximum number of commands written to the history file. To view your current Bash history settings, you can use the following commands:</p>