Methods for avoiding bash history logging?

Question

What are some tricks for avoiding bash history being logged in a fascist logging environment that does not involve modifying .bashrc or deleting content from within the history file?

So that means no rm ~/.bash_history; ln -s /dev/null ~/.bash_history? — goldilocks, Jul 27 '13 at 05:27
Depending on how often you want to do that, see Temporarily suspend bash_history on a given shell? or How do I close a terminal without saving the history? — Gilles 'SO- stop being evil', Jul 27 '13 at 22:36
Also, unset PROMPT_COMMAND. This is the default $PROMPT_COMMAND on a server I have access to: history -a >(tee -a ~/.bash_history | logger -t "$USER[$$] $SSH_CONNECTION") — Kusalananda, Sep 08 '17 at 14:28

score 11 · Answer 1 · answered Jul 28 '13 at 09:08

11

One possible solution is to stop logging bash history is:

set +o history

and to reset, that is to start logging again:

set -o history

answered Jul 28 '13 at 09:08

easl

2,008

score 7 · Accepted Answer · edited Feb 18 '18 at 01:42

7

I guess you have .bash_profile, and this startup file calling .bashrc? Do you have write permission on .bash_profile?

Otherwise, if you just don't want to log some commands, run

$ unset HISTFILE

then all commands afterwards won't be logged within that session.

edited Feb 18 '18 at 01:42

Jeff Schaller

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answered Jul 27 '13 at 03:02

Shâu Shắc

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score 3 · Answer 3 · edited May 23 '17 at 12:40

3

On stackoverflow they had some decent answers:

Add a space to your command.
Add [ \t]* to HISTIGNORE
Add ignorespace to your HISTCONTROL environment variable

Although not all of them may apply for your situation, those seems like the only options.

edited May 23 '17 at 12:40

Community

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answered Jul 27 '13 at 03:53

chrisjlee

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It's important to note that HISTIGNORE/HISTCONTROL stop commands from being added to the history list. This probably keeps them from being logged, too, but it also makes them impossible to access with normal history keys (like up and down arrow, ctrl-R, etc.) So if you're used to editing and repeating previously typed commands, these settings are really annoying. – rici Jul 27 '13 at 04:08
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Adding a space specifically requires the first character to be a space, right? – phs Jul 28 '13 at 00:49
@phs yes - see http://unix.stackexchange.com/questions/115917/why-is-bash-not-storing-commands-that-start-with-spaces – Simon D Jul 26 '16 at 16:23

Methods for avoiding bash history logging?

3 Answers3