Sort .bash_history content alphabetically

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I'm using HISTIGNORE to ignore the most used commands and HISTCONTROL=ignoreboth:erasedups to remove duplicates.

Is there a way to periodically sort the contents of the .bash_history in alphabetical order?

edited Aug 26 at 18:28

agc

4,1751935

asked Aug 23 at 17:35

Ash

1064

Please define Ã¢Â€ÂperiodicallyÃ¢Â€Â, and where would you like to store the output; once sorted.
â€“Â maulinglawns
Aug 23 at 17:48

like once a week or something ... in => ~/.bash_history
â€“Â Ash
Aug 23 at 17:54

add a commentÂ |Â

up vote
0
down vote

favorite

I'm using HISTIGNORE to ignore the most used commands and HISTCONTROL=ignoreboth:erasedups to remove duplicates.

Is there a way to periodically sort the contents of the .bash_history in alphabetical order?

edited Aug 26 at 18:28

agc

4,1751935

asked Aug 23 at 17:35

Ash

1064

Please define Ã¢Â€ÂperiodicallyÃ¢Â€Â, and where would you like to store the output; once sorted.
â€“Â maulinglawns
Aug 23 at 17:48

like once a week or something ... in => ~/.bash_history
â€“Â Ash
Aug 23 at 17:54

add a commentÂ |Â

up vote
0
down vote

favorite

I'm using HISTIGNORE to ignore the most used commands and HISTCONTROL=ignoreboth:erasedups to remove duplicates.

Is there a way to periodically sort the contents of the .bash_history in alphabetical order?

edited Aug 26 at 18:28

agc

4,1751935

asked Aug 23 at 17:35

Ash

1064

I'm using HISTIGNORE to ignore the most used commands and HISTCONTROL=ignoreboth:erasedups to remove duplicates.

Is there a way to periodically sort the contents of the .bash_history in alphabetical order?

bash cron

edited Aug 26 at 18:28

agc

4,1751935

asked Aug 23 at 17:35

Ash

1064

edited Aug 26 at 18:28

agc

4,1751935

asked Aug 23 at 17:35

Ash

1064

edited Aug 26 at 18:28

agc

4,1751935

edited Aug 26 at 18:28

agc

4,1751935

edited Aug 26 at 18:28

agc

4,1751935

asked Aug 23 at 17:35

Ash

1064

asked Aug 23 at 17:35

Ash

1064

asked Aug 23 at 17:35

Ash

1064

Please define Ã¢Â€ÂperiodicallyÃ¢Â€Â, and where would you like to store the output; once sorted.
â€“Â maulinglawns
Aug 23 at 17:48

like once a week or something ... in => ~/.bash_history
â€“Â Ash
Aug 23 at 17:54

add a commentÂ |Â

Please define Ã¢Â€ÂperiodicallyÃ¢Â€Â, and where would you like to store the output; once sorted.
â€“Â maulinglawns
Aug 23 at 17:48

like once a week or something ... in => ~/.bash_history
â€“Â Ash
Aug 23 at 17:54

Please define Ã¢Â€ÂperiodicallyÃ¢Â€Â, and where would you like to store the output; once sorted.
â€“Â maulinglawns
Aug 23 at 17:48

like once a week or something ... in => ~/.bash_history
â€“Â Ash
Aug 23 at 17:54

add a commentÂ |Â

1 Answer
1

active

oldest

votes

up vote
2
down vote

accepted

To see a sorted history without changing it, do:
```
history | sort -k2
```

To sort the history file, do:
```
sort -o ~/.bash_history ~/.bash_history
```
Then log out of bash by typing exit, and log back in. The new
terminal instance will have an alphabetically sorted history.

For the most cautious possible way to sort the history file, first exit all
running instances of bash, (for the current user anyway), then do:
```
sort -o ~/.bash_history ~/.bash_history
```
Note: Users generally have no bad results from editing ~/.bash_history while still logged in. But it's fairly certain that exiting all running instance of bash is as safe or safer.

edited Aug 26 at 17:00

answered Aug 23 at 17:51

agc

4,1751935

This answer would be better with a cron job method as well, but I'm undecided on how to handle systems where terminals are left open for long periods of time. Maybe the job could remind them to log out and log back in, but suppose that's not convenient. Better still would be to have a method that doesn't require and exit at all.
â€“Â agc
Aug 26 at 17:05

add a commentÂ |Â

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1 Answer
1

active

oldest

votes

1 Answer
1

active

oldest

votes

up vote
2
down vote

accepted

To see a sorted history without changing it, do:
```
history | sort -k2
```

To sort the history file, do:
```
sort -o ~/.bash_history ~/.bash_history
```
Then log out of bash by typing exit, and log back in. The new
terminal instance will have an alphabetically sorted history.

For the most cautious possible way to sort the history file, first exit all
running instances of bash, (for the current user anyway), then do:
```
sort -o ~/.bash_history ~/.bash_history
```
Note: Users generally have no bad results from editing ~/.bash_history while still logged in. But it's fairly certain that exiting all running instance of bash is as safe or safer.

edited Aug 26 at 17:00

answered Aug 23 at 17:51

agc

4,1751935

This answer would be better with a cron job method as well, but I'm undecided on how to handle systems where terminals are left open for long periods of time. Maybe the job could remind them to log out and log back in, but suppose that's not convenient. Better still would be to have a method that doesn't require and exit at all.
â€“Â agc
Aug 26 at 17:05

add a commentÂ |Â

up vote
2
down vote

accepted

To see a sorted history without changing it, do:
```
history | sort -k2
```

To sort the history file, do:
```
sort -o ~/.bash_history ~/.bash_history
```
Then log out of bash by typing exit, and log back in. The new
terminal instance will have an alphabetically sorted history.

For the most cautious possible way to sort the history file, first exit all
running instances of bash, (for the current user anyway), then do:
```
sort -o ~/.bash_history ~/.bash_history
```
Note: Users generally have no bad results from editing ~/.bash_history while still logged in. But it's fairly certain that exiting all running instance of bash is as safe or safer.

edited Aug 26 at 17:00

answered Aug 23 at 17:51

agc

4,1751935

This answer would be better with a cron job method as well, but I'm undecided on how to handle systems where terminals are left open for long periods of time. Maybe the job could remind them to log out and log back in, but suppose that's not convenient. Better still would be to have a method that doesn't require and exit at all.
â€“Â agc
Aug 26 at 17:05

add a commentÂ |Â

up vote
2
down vote

accepted

To see a sorted history without changing it, do:
```
history | sort -k2
```

To sort the history file, do:
```
sort -o ~/.bash_history ~/.bash_history
```
Then log out of bash by typing exit, and log back in. The new
terminal instance will have an alphabetically sorted history.

For the most cautious possible way to sort the history file, first exit all
running instances of bash, (for the current user anyway), then do:
```
sort -o ~/.bash_history ~/.bash_history
```
Note: Users generally have no bad results from editing ~/.bash_history while still logged in. But it's fairly certain that exiting all running instance of bash is as safe or safer.

edited Aug 26 at 17:00

answered Aug 23 at 17:51

agc

4,1751935

To see a sorted history without changing it, do:
```
history | sort -k2
```

To sort the history file, do:
```
sort -o ~/.bash_history ~/.bash_history
```
Then log out of bash by typing exit, and log back in. The new
terminal instance will have an alphabetically sorted history.

For the most cautious possible way to sort the history file, first exit all
running instances of bash, (for the current user anyway), then do:
```
sort -o ~/.bash_history ~/.bash_history
```
Note: Users generally have no bad results from editing ~/.bash_history while still logged in. But it's fairly certain that exiting all running instance of bash is as safe or safer.

edited Aug 26 at 17:00

answered Aug 23 at 17:51

agc

4,1751935

edited Aug 26 at 17:00

answered Aug 23 at 17:51

agc

4,1751935

answered Aug 23 at 17:51

agc

4,1751935

answered Aug 23 at 17:51

agc

4,1751935

This answer would be better with a cron job method as well, but I'm undecided on how to handle systems where terminals are left open for long periods of time. Maybe the job could remind them to log out and log back in, but suppose that's not convenient. Better still would be to have a method that doesn't require and exit at all.
â€“Â agc
Aug 26 at 17:05

add a commentÂ |Â

This answer would be better with a cron job method as well, but I'm undecided on how to handle systems where terminals are left open for long periods of time. Maybe the job could remind them to log out and log back in, but suppose that's not convenient. Better still would be to have a method that doesn't require and exit at all.
â€“Â agc
Aug 26 at 17:05

This answer would be better with a cron job method as well, but I'm undecided on how to handle systems where terminals are left open for long periods of time. Maybe the job could remind them to log out and log back in, but suppose that's not convenient. Better still would be to have a method that doesn't require and exit at all.
â€“Â agc
Aug 26 at 17:05

add a commentÂ |Â

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