When using terminal, it saves the previously executed commands. When I press the Up arrow button, it tells us that which commands I have run previously.
Suppose, I am using my friend's system and start using it's command-line. Now, my friend will get to know what commands I have been running. But I don't know want him to know this.
Is there a way I can stop terminal from saving these commands for the current session ?
(Just suppose this scenario for this question. I am not a cheater)
1 Answer
Several things you could do.
1. Type a space in front of each command you run.
It's tedious, but putting a space in front of your commands will keep them from being saved to the bash history.
2. Set a Cronjob to delete .bash_history every hour
Your terminals historical commands are stored in .bash_history in your home directory. If you delete the file, it will effectively remove your history.
First create the script to remove the .bash_history file:
nano ~/script.sh
and add:
#!/bin/bash
rm /home/user/.bash_history
then run:
chmod 775 script.sh
to make script executable and run:
crontab -e
and add 1 * * * * * /home/user/script.sh.
Then exit and save, and it should delete your history every hour.
3. Run unset HISTFILE, as @Carl suggested.
Just run it before exiting the terminal, and it will not save those commands that you ran in the last session to .bash_history.
