Linux Basic Commands

12. history

history Command in Linux

The history command shows a list of all previously run commands in the terminal.
It’s very useful to recall or repeat past commands.

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🔹 Syntax:

history

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🔹 Example:

history

👉 Output:

  1  ls
  2  pwd
  3  cd /home/ashwin
  4  mkdir test
  5  history

This shows:

• Line numbers for each command

• The exact command you typed earlier

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🔹 Useful Options & Examples:

✅ 1. Run a previous command by number

!3

👉 Runs the 3rd command from the history (in this case: cd /home/ashwin)

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✅ 2. Search your command history

history | grep mkdir

👉 Finds all mkdir commands you've used before.

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✅ 3. Repeat the last command

!!

👉 Runs the most recent command again.

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✅ 4. Clear your command history

history -c

👉 Clears all saved history for the current session.

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✅ 5. Save history to a file

history > my_history.txt

👉 Saves your full command history into my_history.txt.

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