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zshhistory

zsh history is too short

When I run history in Bash, I get a load of results (1000+). However, when I run history the zsh shell I only get 15 results. This makes grepping history in zsh mostly useless. My .zshrc file contains the following lines:

HISTFILE=~/.zhistory
HISTSIZE=SAVEHIST=10000
setopt sharehistory
setopt extendedhistory

How can I fix zsh to make my shell history more useful?

UPDATE

If in zsh I call history 1 I get all of my history, just as I do in Bash with history. I could alias the command to get the same result, but I wonder why does history behave differently in zsh and in Bash.

Solution

  • NVaughan (the OP) has already stated the answer in an update to the question: history behaves differently in bash than it does in zsh:

    In short:

    • zsh:
      • history lists only the 15 most recent history entries
      • history 1 lists all - see below.
    • bash:
      • history lists all history entries.

    Sadly, passing a numerical operand to history behaves differently, too:

    • zsh:
      • history <n> shows all entries starting with <n> - therefore, history 1 shows all entries.
      • (history -<n> - note the - - shows the <n> most recent entries, so the default behavior is effectively history -15)
    • bash:
      • history <n> shows the <n> most recent entries.
      • (bash's history doesn't support listing from an entry number; you can use fc -l <n>, but a specific entry <n> must exist, otherwise the command fails - see below.)

    Optional background info:

    • In zsh, history is effectively (not actually) an alias for fc -l: see man zshbuiltins
      • For the many history-related features, see man zshall
    • In bash, history is its own command whose syntax differs from fc -l
      • See: man bash
    • Both bash and zsh support fc -l <fromNum> [<toNum>] to list a given range of history entries:
      • bash: specific entry <fromNum> must exist.
      • zsh: command succeeds as long as least 1 entry falls in the (explicit or implied) range.
      • Thus, fc -l 1 works in zsh to return all history entries, whereas in bash it generally won't, given that entry #1 typically no longer exists (but, as stated, you can use history without arguments to list all entries in bash).