Home / ubuntu / Questions / 799413
Accepted
Daniel Kaplan
Asked: 2016-07-17 09:14:02 +0800 CST

why doesn't history work in Ubuntu?

  • 772

I have a new Ubuntu remote machine set up, and for some reason my history doesn't work. When I try and use the arrow key I get escape codes. Here is my full .profile file, the 1st line works so I know the file is being read:

PS1='$(whoami):$(pwd)-> '
HISTFILESIZE=2500

As a side note I am using Putty, and it worked fine on a local machine, this new remote machine is located elsewhere in the country. I did try changing the Terminal type from 'xterm' and 'linux' to no avail.

Thanks

14.04

1 Answers

  1. Best Answer

    If you pressed Up and got ^[[A, it's probably because the shell on the remote machine doesn't support history. If you run history and it says something like sh: 1: history: not found, that confirms it. More info here: Why don't my arrow keys work in sh?

    Also, if you're not sure which shell is in use, run echo $0.

    • 2