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history

Clear history list

Delete all entries from the current shell’s history list (memory only):

history -c

Delete specific history entries

Delete a single entry by position

history -d OFFSET

Example (delete entry number 150)

history -d 150

Negative offsets count backward from the end

history -d -1

Deletes the most recent command

history -d $(history 1 | awk '{print $1}')

Delete a range of entries

history -d START-END
  • Example:

Deletes entries 100 through 120 (inclusive).

history -d 100-120

Write and read history files

Append current session to history file

Writes only new commands from this session to ~/.bash_history:

history -a

Read new history lines from file

Reads commands added by other shells:

history -n

Read entire history file

Appends the full history file into the current session:

history -r

Write current history list to file

Overwrites the history file with the current in-memory list:

history -w

History expansion without saving

Expand history references (!!, !$, etc.) without storing the result

history -p ARG

History Expansion: Print Last Command Without Executing

history -p !!

Displays the expanded command only.

Manually add commands to history

Append arguments as one single history entry

history -s COMMAND

Example:

history -s "ssh user@host -p 2222"
  • Useful for logging commands you ran elsewhere.

Common operational patterns

Sync history across terminals (manual)

history -a
history -n

Remove last command from history

history -d -1

Remove specifik line from history, in this example we remove line 1093 from history

history -d 1093

Clear history and write immediately

history -c
history -w

List of commands you use most often

history | awk '{a[$2]++}END{for(i in a){print a[i] " " i}}' | sort -rn | head

Notes

  • history -c clears memory only until followed by history -w
  • history -a is append-safe
  • history -w overwrites the history file
  • Range deletion is permanent once written