topic Re: command history recall in Operating System - HP-UX

command history recall

Chris Conrad — Wed, 26 Feb 2003 14:05:43 GMT

I am trying to set up command history recall on my HP C3600 Worstations. When I type K to recall the previous command, all I see on the screen is ^[K. What do I need to set up to capture the ?

Re: command history recall

Stefan Farrelly — Wed, 26 Feb 2003 14:15:38 GMT

Normally its ESCAPE-k to recally your command. As long as your have HISTFILE set up and a set -o vi command done (in your .profile) then ESC-k should work fine.

Re: command history recall

Armin Feller — Wed, 26 Feb 2003 14:22:13 GMT

If history function is configured, [ESC] [k] will recall the commands.

To configure history function, please do following:

# vi .profile
...
HISTSIZE=500
HISTFILE=.sh_history
export HISTSIZE HISTFILE
EDITOR=vi
export EDITOR

# touch $HOME/.sh_history

After re-read the .profile you should be able to get the history function.

Re: command history recall

Chris Conrad — Wed, 26 Feb 2003 14:25:18 GMT

there must be something you have to set up in the terminal settings to capture the escape key before it goes to the screen, because it just shows up as ^[k

Re: command history recall

Steve Labar — Wed, 26 Feb 2003 17:54:14 GMT

Your HISTFILE should be setup as
HISTFILE=${HOME}/.sh_history
Then make sure the file is created
touch ${HOME}/.sh_history

Keep in mind, this history recall is for sh and ksh only. If you are using csh, you recall history using '!'.

Good Luck.

Steve

Re: command history recall

Francisco J. Soler — Wed, 26 Feb 2003 18:18:15 GMT

Hi, if your terminal is not well configured you could try with the c-shell, type in
csh
and then yo can view the history with the history command.
To repeat the last command just type !!, and to repeat another one just type !n, when n is the number showed in the history command.

Frank.

Re: command history recall

K.Vijayaragavan. — Thu, 27 Feb 2003 14:51:11 GMT

"ksh -io vi" command allows you recalling commands and altering using vi commands.
You may put the same in profile.

-Vijay

Re: command history recall

V. Nyga — Thu, 27 Feb 2003 16:31:39 GMT

Hi Chris,

check your login shell
'env|grep SHELL'

If you have csh it will work like Francisco told, if you have ksh it should work like discribed above.

Volkmar

Re: command history recall

Martin Johnson — Thu, 27 Feb 2003 16:41:47 GMT

You may have to set the variable:

EDITOR=vi; export EDITOR

also, make sure you are the owner of the .sh_history file and read/write permissions are set for the owner.

HTH
Marty

Re: command history recall

Brian M Rawlings — Thu, 27 Feb 2003 23:36:28 GMT

Stephen mentioned adding a line to your .profile; no one else has mentioned it, but I have found it to be needed:

set -o vi

I'm not sure quite what the interaction is between setting the EDITOR=vi variable, and using the 'set -o vi' command, I have both in my .profile (too superstitious to leave either out). But, as I recall, the 'set' command was what did the trick to get to bring back history of commands. Plus all the other things that have been mentioned (like, you have to set the HIST... variables, and the history file you set in a variable has to exist).

One point about the sequence, once you get vi correctly set up as your line editor: once you hit , you are in 'vi edit mode'. So, if you realize you left a word out of a long command, you hit , and then use the 'h' key (cursor left, in vi) to move back to that spot, then hit 'i' to enter insert mode, add what you need, and then enter the whole command line with a .

Other vi functions work when you are in 'vi mode', such as a '/' to search back through your command history, rather than just going back sequentially, etc. All your favorite 'vi' functions, like 'cw' to change a word, or 'dw' to delete a word, can be used once you hit .

I couldn't live without it, and it is one of the first things I get set up, when I have to work on a unix system that doesn't do this... which poses a bit of a problem on Solaris, or Linux, where setting this up is different.

Hope it helps... --bmr