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Execute command without keeping it in history

I want to execute some commands but don't want to store them in the command history. So that nobody will be able to search it in the .bash_history file.

.bash_history

Is there any way how to execute bash commands this way?

13 Answers
13

Start your command with a space and it won't be included in the history.

Be aware that this does require the environment variable $HISTCONTROL to be set.

$HISTCONTROL

Check that the following command returns ignorespace or
ignoreboth

ignorespace

ignoreboth

#> echo $HISTCONTROL


To add the environment variable if missing, the following line can be
added to the bash profile. E.g. %HOME/.bashrc

%HOME/.bashrc

export HISTCONTROL=ignorespace


After sourcing the profile again space prefixed commands will not be written to $HISTFILE

$HISTFILE

In any given bash session, set the history file to /dev/null by typing:

export HISTFILE=/dev/null

Note that, as pointed out in the comments, this will not write any commands in that session to the history!

Just don't mess with your sysadmin's hard work please ;)

[UPDATE] @Doodad's solution is more elegant, simply unset the variable: unset HISTFILE (thanks!)

unset HISTFILE

/dev/null

unset HISTFILE

echo "discreet";history -d $(history 1)


An extension of @John Doe & @user3270492's answer. But, this seems to work for me.

<your_secret_command>; history -d $((HISTCMD-1))


You should not see the entry of the command in your history.

Here's the explanation..

The 'history -d' deletes the mentioned entry from the history.

The HISTCMD stores the command_number of the one to be executed next. So, (HISTCMD-1) refers to the last executed command.

https://superuser.com/a/529193

You might consider using a shell without history, like perhaps

/bin/sh << END
your commands without history
END


(perhaps /bin/dash or /bin/sash could be more appropriate than /bin/sh)

/bin/dash

/bin/sash

/bin/sh

or even better use the batch utility e.g

batch << EOB
your commands
EOB


The history would then contain sh or batch which is not very meaningful

sh

batch

You also can use the following command:

echo toto; history -d $(history | sed -n '$s/s*([0-9]*)s*.*$/1/p')


I think it's a very portable command

alias forget="history -d $(history | sed -n '$s/s*([0-9]*)s*.*$/1/p')"

mysql -uroot -pSecretPassword ; forget

$s

function forget() // put code here //

You can start your session with

export HISTFILE=/dev/null ;history -d $(history 1)


then proceed with your sneaky doings. Setting the histfile to /dev/null will be logged to the history file, yet this entry will be readily deleted and no traces (at least in the histor file) will be shown.

/dev/null

Also, this is non-permanent.

As mentioned by @Doodad in comments, unset HISTFILE does this nicely, but in case you also want to also delete some history, do echo $HISTFILE to get the history file location (usually ~/.bash_history), then unset HISTFILE, then edit ~/.bash_history (or whatever HISTFILE was - of course it's now unset so you can't read it).

unset HISTFILE

echo $HISTFILE

~/.bash_history

unset HISTFILE

~/.bash_history

HISTFILE

unset

$ echo $HISTFILE # e.g. ~/.bash_history
$ unset HISTFILE
$ vi ~/.bash_history # or your preferred editor


Then you've edited your history, and the fact that you edited it!

unset HISTFILE; echo TEST; history

echo TEST

unset HISTFILE

There are several ways you can achieve this. This sets the size of the history file to 0:

export HISTFILESIZE=0


This sets the history file to /dev/null, effectively disabling it:

/dev/null

export HISTFILE=/dev/null


For individual commands, you can prefix the command with a space and it won't be saved in the history file. Note that this requires you have the ignorespace value included in the $HISTCONTROL environment variable (man bash and search for ignorespace for more details).

ignorespace

$HISTCONTROL

ignorespace

This is handy if you want to erase all the history, including the fact that you erased all the history!

rm .bash_history;export HISTFILE=/dev/null;exit


If you are using zsh you can run:

setopt histignorespace


After this is set, each command starting with a space will be excluded from history.

You can use aliases in .zshrc to turn this on/off:

.zshrc

# Toggle ignore-space. Useful when entering passwords.
alias history-ignore-space-on='
setopt hist_ignore_space;
echo "Commands starting with space are now EXCLUDED from history."'

alias history-ignore-space-off='
unsetopt hist_ignore_space;
echo "Commands starting with space are now ADDED to history."'


This command might come in handy. This will not record the command that is executed

history -d $((HISTCMD-1)) &&

You just need to run:
$ set +o history

$ set +o history

To see more, run:
$ man set

$ man set

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