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by snogglethorpe 3949 days ago
Another issue is that it looks like would start a new history file only when a new shell is started. Some people log in fresh every day, but I've got terminal windows on my home machine that have been sitting around for many months...

I guess you'd have to set the history-size etc large enough to hopefully last for the maximum expected shell run-time.

EDIT: hmm, the man page says you can just unset HISTFILESIZE or set it to a non-numeric/negative value to avoid truncating the history file at all.
1 comments
michaelhoffman 3949 days ago
Yeah, I have this as well:

   export HISTSIZE=65535 # why not?
   export HISTFILESIZE=65535
   export HISTCONTROL=ignoredups
but now I'm wondering if I should unset `HISTFILESIZE` insteead.
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myhf 3949 days ago
It can also be nice to use HISTCONTROL=ignorespace

If you're planning on keeping a lot of history, ignorespace makes it easy to avoid inserting commands with sensitive info. A well-placed $(cat) can work too.

    $  PASSWORD=hunter2 # sensitive info doesn't go into history
    $ curl -O http://name:$PASSWORD@server/path # command with correct syntax does go into history
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