LINUX COMMAND ATLAS · COMMAND GUIDE

Linux history command

Show commands recorded by your shell in the current history list.

Shell builtin

Syntax

Command form

history [N] | history [-c] | history [-d OFFSET]

6 options

Option	What it does
`N`	Show the most recent N history entries.
`-c`	Clear the in-memory history list.
`-d OFFSET`	Delete the history entry at OFFSET.
`-a`	Append new entries from this session to the history file.
`-r`	Read the history file and append its contents to the list.
`-w`	Write the current list to the history file.

3 examples

Show commands recorded by your shell in the current history list.

history | tail -n 15

Show the most recent 20 commands.

history 20

Show the last ten displayed history lines.

history | tail -n 10

history is a shell builtin. Clearing the current list does not always remove history already written to disk.