Terminal SLASH Konsole users History is a great tool

[oshunluvr]

I use the terminal a LOT. I just discovered a neat time saver. Say you typed a long command like:

sudo -u www-data /usr/bin/php /var/www/nextcloud/occ files:scan --all --verbose

and wanted to use it again, but that was like a half-hour ago so there were hundreds of commands between then and now. Scrolling through them would be more work than typing it all again - assuming of course I remember it correctly.

Here's the tip: type "history |grep php" and the above command along with a list of other appears like this:

[FONT=monospace][COLOR=#000000]  437  dpkg -l |grep [/COLOR][COLOR=#FF5454][B]php[/B][/COLOR]
438  [COLOR=#FF5454][B]php[/B][/COLOR][COLOR=#000000] -v[/COLOR]
440  sudo -u www-data /usr/bin/[COLOR=#FF5454][B]php[/B][/COLOR][COLOR=#000000] /var/www/nextcloud/occ files:scan --all --verbose[/COLOR]
463  locate config.[COLOR=#FF5454][B]php[/B][/COLOR]
464  nano /var/www/nextcloud/config/config.[COLOR=#FF5454][B]php[/B][/COLOR]
466  nano /var/www/nextcloud/config/config.[COLOR=#FF5454][B]php[/B][/COLOR]
468  nano /var/www/nextcloud/config/config.[COLOR=#FF5454][B]php[/B][/COLOR]
493  nano /var/www/nextcloud/config/config.[COLOR=#FF5454][B]php[/B][/COLOR]
514  locate Error[COLOR=#FF5454][B]php[/B][/COLOR][COLOR=#000000].log[/COLOR]
515  locate Errorlog.[COLOR=#FF5454][B]php[/B][/COLOR]
517  cat lib/private/Log/Syslog.[COLOR=#FF5454][B]php[/B][/COLOR]
524  nano /var/www/nextcloud/config/config.[COLOR=#FF5454][B]php[/B][/COLOR]
526  nano /var/www/nextcloud/config/config.[COLOR=#FF5454][B]php[/B][/COLOR]
541  apt install [COLOR=#FF5454][B]php[/B][/COLOR][COLOR=#000000]7.0-pdo[/COLOR]
542  apt install [COLOR=#FF5454][B]php[/B][/COLOR][COLOR=#000000]-pdo[/COLOR]
544  ls /etc/[COLOR=#FF5454][B]php[/B][/COLOR]
545  ls /etc/[COLOR=#FF5454][B]php[/B][/COLOR][COLOR=#000000]/7.1[/COLOR]
546  ls /etc/[COLOR=#FF5454][B]php[/B][/COLOR][COLOR=#000000]/7.1/apache2/[/COLOR]
547  rm -rfv /etc/[COLOR=#FF5454][B]php[/B][/COLOR][COLOR=#000000]/7.1[/COLOR]
548  ls /etc/[COLOR=#FF5454][B]php[/B][/COLOR][COLOR=#000000]/7.0[/COLOR]
549  ls /etc/[COLOR=#FF5454][B]php[/B][/COLOR][COLOR=#000000]/7.0/apache2/[/COLOR]
550  ls /etc/[COLOR=#FF5454][B]php[/B][/COLOR][COLOR=#000000]/7.0/apache2/conf.d/[/COLOR]
551  ls /etc/[COLOR=#FF5454][B]php[/B][/COLOR][COLOR=#000000]/7.0/apache2/conf.d/20-mysql.ini[/COLOR]
552  ls /etc/[COLOR=#FF5454][B]php[/B][/COLOR][COLOR=#000000]/7.0/apache2/conf.d/20-mysqli.ini[/COLOR]
553  cat /etc/[COLOR=#FF5454][B]php[/B][/COLOR][COLOR=#000000]/7.0/apache2/conf.d/20-mysqli.ini[/COLOR]
554  cat /etc/[COLOR=#FF5454][B]php[/B][/COLOR][COLOR=#000000]/7.0/apache2/conf.d/20-pdo_mysql.ini[/COLOR]
555  cat /etc/[COLOR=#FF5454][B]php[/B][/COLOR][COLOR=#000000]/7.0/apache2/[/COLOR][COLOR=#FF5454][B]php[/B][/COLOR][COLOR=#000000].ini  [/COLOR]
568  cat /var/www/nextcloud/config/config.[COLOR=#FF5454][B]php[/B][/COLOR]
606  cat nextcloud/index.[COLOR=#FF5454][B]php[/B][/COLOR]
613  nano index.[COLOR=#FF5454][B]php[/B][/COLOR]
626  history |grep [COLOR=#FF5454][B]php[/B][/COLOR]

[/FONT]

The command I wanted is line 440, so all I have to type is:

!440

That's it! Neat!

[Snowhog]

That's quite useful. Another tool for the toolbox.

[MoonRise]

Yep! Great one! Have that in my list.

[Rod J]

In a similar vein, in a new install I've always added the following lines to the end of my .bashrc:

# Enable command line history recall navigation filtering by using up and down arrows
# ala 4dos/NT/TC (obtained from http://www.geocities.com/h2428/petar/bash_hist.htm)
bind '"\e[A"':history-search-backward
bind '"\e[B"':history-search-forward

# This gives the equivalent 4Dos/NT/TC Page-Up command to show all previous entered commands based
# on the partial input on the current line
bind '"\e[5~"':"\"\C-k\C-ahistory | grep '^ *[0-9]* *\C-e.'\C-m\""

The comment lines pretty much explain what the commands do. The first one modifies the standard command line recall function to quickly recall previous command lines that started with certain characters, i.e: by typing a few characters of a previously used command and then pressing up or down arrows it finds commands that started with those characters.

I see the geocities web page has disappeared now, I was just giving credit to the person who came up with it originally. Back in my DOS days I used to use 4DOS, 4NT and Take Command command line interpreters a lot and they had some really advanced features.

The second one is similar to oshunluvr's history recall function. Type a few characters of a previously used command and press Page Up ... gives a list of indexed commands that started with those characters and you can execute them as with oshunluvr's tip. It only works for command lines that started with those characters unlike oshunluvr's recall function that finds the characters anywhere in the command line. I'm now wondering if I should modify the command to make it work the same way.

[oshunluvr]

Awesome functionality Rod. I may have to add that here!

[NickStone]

It is not exclusive to Konsole. It is found in BASH and can be used in any terminal emulator.