Run statistics on typed shell commands
Programming Snapshot – Shell Stats
© Lead Image © Scott Rothstein, 123RF.com
In the history log, the Bash shell records all commands typed by the user. Mike Schilli extracts this data with Go for a statistical analysis of his typing behavior.
How did the long command to connect to the database server work again? Shell power users know this memory problem and have taught themselves tricks over the years to repeat or resend modified versions of previously sent command lines. For example, the sequence !! repeats the last command (useful to prepend a sudo you might have forgotten); with Ctrl+R you can find and reuse commands that were sent further back in time by using search patterns. Bash remembers the entire typing history and shows it with the history command, which lists the tail end of what it has in memory (Figure 1).
Figure 1: The history command displays the last commands that were issued.
If you have ever taken a look at the .bash_history file in your home directory, you will know its little secret. This is where Bash simply appends every command sent, regardless of if it was successful or aborted with an error. If you ask for the last commands you entered, Bash simply looks there (Figure 2).
[...]
Buy this article as PDF
(incl. VAT)
Buy Linux Magazine
US / Canada
UK / Australia
Subscribe to our Linux Newsletters
Find Linux and Open Source Jobs
Subscribe to our ADMIN Newsletters
Support Our Work
Linux Magazine content is made possible with support from readers like you. Please consider contributing when you’ve found an article to be beneficial.
News
-
Linux Mint 20 Reaches EOL
With Linux Mint 20 at its end of life, the time has arrived to upgrade to Linux Mint 22.
-
TuxCare Announces Support for AlmaLinux 9.2
Thanks to TuxCare, AlmaLinux 9.2 (and soon version 9.6) now enjoys years of ongoing patching and compliance.
-
Go-Based Botnet Attacking IoT Devices
Using an SSH credential brute-force attack, the Go-based PumaBot is exploiting IoT devices everywhere.
-
Plasma 6.5 Promises Better Memory Optimization
With the stable Plasma 6.4 on the horizon, KDE has a few new tricks up its sleeve for Plasma 6.5.
-
KaOS 2025.05 Officially Qt5 Free
If you're a fan of independent Linux distributions, the team behind KaOS is proud to announce the latest iteration that includes kernel 6.14 and KDE's Plasma 6.3.5.
-
Linux Kernel 6.15 Now Available
The latest Linux kernel is now available with several new features/improvements and the usual bug fixes.
-
Microsoft Makes Surprising WSL Announcement
In a move that might surprise some users, Microsoft has made Windows Subsystem for Linux open source.
-
Red Hat Releases RHEL 10 Early
Red Hat quietly rolled out the official release of RHEL 10.0 a bit early.
-
openSUSE Joins End of 10
openSUSE has decided to not only join the End of 10 movement but it also will no longer support the Deepin Desktop Environment.
-
New Version of Flatpak Released
Flatpak 1.16.1 is now available as the latest, stable version with various improvements.