[Techtalk] duplicate bash history entries

[Dennis Wheeler]

> -----Original Message-----
> From: aec [mailto:brat at magma.ca] 
> 
> 
> Hi,
> I have my ~/.bash_profile set to source ~/.bashrc ; inside bashrc,
> I have the line : 
> 
> export HISTCONTROL=ignoredups 
> 
> yet my history file is full of duplicate commands, 
> is there something else i need to do to have only 
> unique commands stored in my history file? 
> 
> This is is on Debian Sid.
> 
> thanks!
> -- 
> Angelina Carlton
> 

According to the man page, it appears it only compares the current
command to the previous one. So two 'ls' in a row, and only one is
remembered, but do an 'ls' followed by a 'cd' and another 'ls' and
you'll have both 'ls' in the history.

Not a very useful setting if that's true.

You might have more luck with HISTIGNORE instead

-- Dennis