How to Add Date And Time To Your Bash History file

This is very useful tip if there are multiple people maintaining or using debian desktop,server or even if you are the maintainer, but can't remember exactly when you did or changed something.

If you want to add this settings to globally use /etc/bash.bashrc

First you need to Edit your $HOME/.bashrc file

#vi $HOME/.bashrc

Add the following line

export HISTTIMEFORMAT="%h/%d -- %H:%M:%S "

Save and exit the file.

From next login instead of:

574  tail -f /var/log/maillog
575  mailq | tail -15
576  tail -f /var/log/maillog
577  less /var/log/maillog

you get:

1002  May/09 -- 11:46:16 grep log /var/log/maillog
1003  Apr/09 -- 14:17:40 passwd test
1004  Apr/09 -- 14:50:28 history 15

Some more bash history tips

The most efficent way to search your history is to hit Ctrl R and type the start of the command. It will autocomplete as soon as there’s a match to a history entry, then you just hit enter

If you don't want to save duplicate commands use the following option in your bashrc file ($HOME/.bashrc)

HISTCONTROL=ignoreboth

If you want to set the size of the history file use the following option in your bashrc file ($HOME/.bashrc)

HISTSIZE=500

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