Per-directory bash history

I've been thinking about how a specific bash history for each directory could improve productivity, and unlike what I feared it was actually pretty easy to find a solution on the net.

Quote from an anonymous reply on debian-administration.org


So I use the following bash function:

  1. #
  2. # Usage: mycd <path>
  3. #
  4. #  Replacement for builtin 'cd', wh ich keeps a separate bash-history
  5. #   for every directory.
  6. function mycd()
  7. {
  8.    history -w # write current history  file
  9.    builtin cd "$@"  # do actual c d
  10.    local HISTDIR="$HOME/.dir_bash_history$PWD" # use& nbsp;nested folders for history
  11.    if  [ ! -d "$HISTDIR" ]&n bsp;; then # create folder if neede d
  12.       mkdir -p "$HISTDIR"
  13.    fi
  14.    export HISTFILE="$HISTDIR/bash_history.txt" # set& nbsp;new history file
  15.    history -c  # clear memory
  16.    history -r #read from current histfile
  17. }

and then set it up with the following in my bashrc:

  1. shopt -s histappend
  2. alias cd="mycd"
  3. export HISTFILE="$HOME/.dir_bash_history$PWD/bash_history.txt"

Great stuff. It would be nice to be able to use both the global and the directory-specific history by combining with an extra modifier key .
( eg arrowup/pageup/c^r for global and alt+arrowup/alt+pageup/alt+c^r for the directory-specific one )

If I ever come up with / find something to do this I'll let you know...

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Submitted by Dieter_be on Wed, 01/30/2008 - 22:37. categories [ ]

thanks - this is a very

Submitted by Jeremy Leipzig (not verified) on Thu, 06/25/2009 - 23:49.

thanks - this is a very useful script

do you miss having a global history or is there some way of getting all history displayed in sequential order?

Actually I never got to

Submitted by Dieter_be on Sun, 06/28/2009 - 15:13.

Actually I never got to really using it like this. I don't like switching to non-default setups, especially if they don't work exactly the way I want.

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