Searching your command history on macOS terminal
BashMacosHistoryBash Problem Overview
What is the shortcut to search my command history in macOS terminal?
For how long is the history available for searching? Where is it stored?
Bash Solutions
Solution 1 - Bash
How about using Ctrl+R for searching on the Terminal Utility in Mac for searching on the command history,
dudeOnMac: freddy$ whoami
freddy
(reverse-i-search)`who': whoami
Well for controlling how long the history would be retained that depends on a few shell environment variables, HISTFILESIZE which is nothing but number of lines of history you want to retain. Set a huge value for it in .bash_profile for it to take effect
HISTFILESIZE=10000000
Solution 2 - Bash
Use Ctrl + R for searching a command from history in Terminal.
(reverse-i-search)`':
Type any substring of the command you want to search e.g. grep
(reverse-i-search)`grep': grep "XYZ" abc.txt
It will return the latest command that matches your input. If that is not the command you were searching for, keep pressing Ctrl + R for next match until you find your command.
Once you found your command press Return to execute it.
If you want to exit without running any command, press Ctrl + G
PS: This answer is same as suggested by Inian, just giving more details for easy usage.
Solution 3 - Bash
Migrating an answer to SO from this answer on the Unix and Linux Stack Exchange:
Pressing ctrl+R will open the history-search-backward. Now start typing your command, this will give the first match. By pressing ctrl+R again (and again) you can cycle through the history.
If you like to be super lazy you can bind the up/down arrow keys to perform this search, I have the following in my .inputrc to bind the up/down arrow key to history-search-backward and history-search-forward:
# Key bindings, up/down arrow searches through history
"\e[A": history-search-backward
"\e[B": history-search-forward
"\eOA": history-search-backward
"\eOB": history-search-forward
Just type something (optional), then press up/down arrow key to search through history for commands that begin with what you typed.
To do this in .bashrc rather than .inputrc, you can use:
bind '"\e[A": history-search-backward'
Solution 4 - Bash
The command history is stored under your home folder in a hidden file called .bash_history. To view it's content in nano, use the following command in Terminal:
nano ~/.bash_history
Or open with your text editor (default is TextEdit):
open ~/.bash_history
In my case it's a very long list and as I scroll through seems like the last ~500 command is stored here.
Solution 5 - Bash
Use this command -
history
This works on both OSX and Linux.
History is stored in ~/.zsh_history or ~/.bash_history or ~/.history depending on your shell.
History is stored for 1000 or 2000 lines depending on your system.
echo $HISTSIZE
Solution 6 - Bash
You can also try the following:
history | grep 'git'
Where 'git' is the command you are looking for.
Solution 7 - Bash
For those who want to search specific command from history, you can do so with reverse-i-search. Reverse search allow you to type in any key words(any) that is part of the command you are looking for and reverse search navigate back to history, match previous commands incrementally and return the entire command.
It is especially useful as when one cannot remember all handy lengthy commands they use often. To do reverse-search ctrl + R and type any clue you have and that will return your previous commands matching the words you type. Then once found the command, hit Enter to execute it directly from search.
Solution 8 - Bash
> Automation AppleScript
Since you mentioned viewing your history as a quick solution, via the Terminal.app. You might want to automate, or quickly view history, maybe from the dock. You may use the AppleScript application as one alternative. This is an optional approach to create a simple shortcut, as to many others.
- Open the AppleScript editor application.
- Add your specified commands, for history.
- Code
tell application "Terminal"
do script "history"
end tell
4. Save as application, drag to dock for convenience.
> History Storage & Time Stored Details
HISTSIZE Determines how many lines will be written to the history file.
HISTFILESIZE Determines how long the file.
Find out how long history is stored:
echo $HISTSIZE $HISTFILESIZE
Note: You may also increase your command history storage size in the length of two variables. You may achieve this through HISTSIZE and HISTFILESIZE environment variables which are located in your ~/.bash_profile file.
It is possible to achieve this by modifying ~/.bash_profile, the number placeholder with SIZE represent's the number, lines value as example:
export HISTFILESIZE=SIZE # Example 1000
export HISTSIZE=SIZE # Example 10000
> Pre macOS 11 Big Sur
cat ~/.bash_history
HISTFILESIZE will only set a maximum history value which is stored to the history file when a session is started. HISTSIZE will determine specifically how many lines will be stored or in other words, written at the end of the session. If the set HISTFILESIZE is determined to be a large value than what HISTSIZE is set, you will not view history larger than your set HISTSIZE. The reason is that the history file is overwritten with the HISTSIZE unless using histappend option turned ON.
You may use also histappend to append history, If the histappend shell option is turned on lines are appended to the history file. Otherwise, the overwritten alternative proceeds.
> macOS 11 Big Sur
nano ~/.zprofile
Modify history environment variables, set to a value:
export HISTFILESIZE=1000
export HISTSIZE=SIZE=1000
Run the source command can be used to load any functions file into the current shell script or a command prompt.
source ~/.zprofile
echo $HISTSIZE $HISTFILESIZE
Outputs:
1000 1000
Output where some history is stored:
cat ~/.zsh_history
Solution 9 - Bash
For macOS Big Sur the file is now .zsh_history
If you do vi ~/.zsh_history in the terminal you can use regex by pressing the / and then the search term.
Solution 10 - Bash
To review or recall recently used commands, you can just press the up arrow key to sequentially read back through the history stored in .bash_history.
Solution 11 - Bash
To search through history with ease, I advise you to install fzf.
> It's an interactive Unix filter for command-line that can be used with any list; files, command history, processes, hostnames, bookmarks, git commits, etc.
Just install it, click ctrl + R, and you'll be to scroll through you shell history, without the need to grep or waiting ages until the command you're waiting for pops up.
It supports Mac OS, Linux and even Windows.
Solution 12 - Bash
# USAGE: find.history cd
# filter commands in shell history by a search term and execute the selected command
function find.history {
eval $(history | grep "$1" | tail | awk '{$1=""}1' | tail -r | peco)
}
You will need to have peco installed.
[$]> brew install peco