<to...@tuxteam.de> wrote: > On Tue, Apr 18, 2023 at 05:29:43AM +0000, David wrote: > > On Tue, 18 Apr 2023 at 04:42, David Wright > > <deb...@lionunicorn.co.uk> wrote: > > > There is an option to timestamp entries in the history file. I've > > > never used it, nor heard of its being used. That might > > > disambiguate things if you ever suspect it might happen again. > > > > Hi, on my machines I use Bash as interactive > > shell, with: > > HISTTIMEFORMAT=: %Y%m%d_%H%M%S ; > > > > That provides a couple of benefits: > > > > 1) it writes a commented Unix timestamp with > > each addition to the ~/.bash_history file, so that > > the history file not only logs what commands were > > run interactively, but also when. > > > > 2) when I run the 'history' command, the outpt > > is formatted like this: > > 501 : 20230418_151124 ; help history > > 502 : 20230418_151406 ; env > > 503 : 20230418_151749 ; history > > The colon and semicolon allow the timestamp > > to function as a no-operation command. > > At least in bash, this doesn't seem necessary, as you are > only seeing an external representation: internally, bash > keeps the timestamp separate (as happens to the seq number, > too). > > In the external file, the timestamps are kept as #-comments > in separate lines (with the UNIX timestamps in them).
bash seems to treat root and a normal user differently. > > That means that history expansion > > can still function, for example entering !502 > > interactively will run line number 502, but > > only the 'env' that comes after the semicolon > > will have any effect. > > I tried it out, and this also works with a "naked" timestamp, > without the : ... ; wrapping. > > Caveat: I only tried with bash. > > Cheers
