The history command is used to display the list of previously typed commands. While the base command will list all previous commands used since the last clearing, it can also be tailored to display by the page or a certain number of commands.
Command: history
Synopsis: history [option]
Options:
| Option | Description |
|---|---|
| -c | Clears the history log by deleting all entries. |
| -d offset | Deletes entry at the offset. For example: history -d 8 will delete the entry at line 8 in the history log. All entries are then renumbered. |
Examples
history – The base command lists all the commands that were previously entered.
# history 1 (06/10/14) 13:43:41 clear 2 (06/10/14) 13:43:42 cd / 3 (06/10/14) 13:43:47 ping google.com 4 (06/10/14) 13:43:56 tail -f /var/log/messages 5 (06/10/14) 13:44:05 cd .. 6 (06/10/14) 13:44:11 cd /home/userna5 7 (06/10/14) 13:44:14 history 8 (06/10/14) 13:44:39 cd public_html 9 (06/10/14) 13:44:44 touch test.html 10 (06/10/14) 13:45:02 history history n – Using the base command plus n where n is the number of lines you want to display. Below is an example displaying the last 5 commands.
# history 5 7 (06/10/14) 13:44:14 history 8 (06/10/14) 13:44:39 cd public_html 9 (06/10/14) 13:44:44 touch test.html 10 (06/10/14) 13:45:02 history 11 (06/10/14) 14:05:06 history 5 history -d n – The delete offset command allows you to delete a specific command from the list. The number used in the command relates to the line number you want to delete. Below is an example where we delete the 9th line number. Notice that in the last history list that command is no longer present.
#history
1 (06/10/14) 13:43:41 clear 2 (06/10/14) 13:43:42 cd / 3 (06/10/14) 13:43:47 ping google.com 4 (06/10/14) 13:43:56 tail -f /var/log/messages 5 (06/10/14) 13:44:05 cd .. 6 (06/10/14) 13:44:11 cd /home/userna5 7 (06/10/14) 13:44:14 history 8 (06/10/14) 13:44:39 cd public_html 9 (06/10/14) 13:44:44 touch test.html 10 (06/10/14) 13:45:02 history # history -d 9 # history 1 (06/10/14) 13:43:41 clear 2 (06/10/14) 13:43:42 cd / 3 (06/10/14) 13:43:47 ping google.com 4 (06/10/14) 13:43:56 tail -f /var/log/messages 5 (06/10/14) 13:44:05 cd .. 6 (06/10/14) 13:44:11 cd /home/userna5 7 (06/10/14) 13:44:14 history 8 (06/10/14) 13:44:39 cd public_html 9 (06/10/14) 13:45:02 history 10 (06/10/14) 14:16:38 history -d 9 11 (06/10/14) 14:17:07 history
history -c – This command clears the history list.
# history -c # history 1 (06/10/14) 14:21:04 history
history | tail – This history command will list the last 10 commands used. Note that the character between history and tail is a pipe character, not a lowercase ‘L’.
history | tail 13 (06/10/14) 14:58:23 ls -l 14 (06/10/14) 14:58:27 clear 15 (06/10/14) 14:58:31 history 16 (06/10/14) 14:58:41 history | less 17 (06/10/14) 15:00:23 history | less 18 (06/10/14) 15:05:03 history | tail 19 (06/10/14) 15:12:51 clear 20 (06/10/14) 15:12:52 man pwd 21 (06/10/14) 15:13:03 man cd 22 (06/10/14) 15:16:36 history | tail 
Hi,
Do you know how I can reset the history offset?
Whenever I do “history -S” my offset increases so that now the history list does not start from “1”.
How can I reset the list (without deleting it) so that it will start from “1” again?
Thank you.