Root's .sh_history

[Brian Atkins]

Recently, when I was logged in as root, I noticed that I wasn't able to esc-K to repeat previous commands. I looked at .sh_history, but it had nothing there. The permissions were fine on the file, but I can't seem to find out why nothing is being written there. It actually worries me a bit, because I can't see what other SA-types have been doing to the system (or who knows who else).

[Kofi ARTHIABAH]

Brian:

You may want to verify that the env variable HISTFILE is defined and set to the ~/.sh_history file - you may need to add it to your /etc/profile

#echo "export HISTFILE=~/.sh_history" >> /etc/profile

logout and back in and voila

[Rick Garland]

In the .profile for root, input the following:

VISUAL=vi
HISTFILE=$HOME/.sh_history
export VISUAL HISTFILE

You can also put in the /etc/profile for everyone to use.

[James R. Ferguson]

Brian:

If I want to cover my tracks, I'm sure not going to leave what I do in the history file!

Maybe one of your other admins deliberately nulled it to prevent someone else from inadvertantly reissuing a command that shouldn't be issued twice. I do this myself for my own protection.

Regards!

...JRF...

[Rick Garland · Accepted solution]

As a further mention, check the shell being used for the user.

[Brian Atkins]

Thanks, guys!
I did a pwck, which proved Rick's point. The shell was indeed invalid.
However, as a point of good measure, I added the HISTFILE=~/.sh_history to the profile.