History file for dialog C shell (t)csh

[Polytropon]

On Sun, 20 Apr 2014 12:16:55 -0600 (MDT), Warren Block wrote:
> On Sun, 20 Apr 2014, Trond Endrestøl wrote:
> 
> > On Sun, 20 Apr 2014 19:40+0200, Polytropon wrote:
> >
> >> I have a question regarding shell history when running several
> >> shell instances. The C shell (still) is my primary interactive
> >> shell. It stores commands in ~/.history. But as I'm using more
> >> than one shell instance (in fact, 5+ shells is the norm here,
> >> called inside X terminals), I find that the history file only
> >> contains commands from one of those shells, even though the history
> >> of each indivual shell can recall previous commands. At the end,
> >> only one shell's commands are stored in the history file, so
> >> after a reboot for example, all shells have _that_ specific
> >> history.
> >>
> >> My question sounds stupid, even to me: Is there a way to have
> >> individual shell history files for each shell instance? I don't
> >> even have an idea of how to make the association shell<->history
> >> for later re-identification... it already sounds confusing...
> >>
> >> Or on the other hand, is it possible to have all shells send
> >> their history to a common history file?
> >>
> >> Or should I simply switch over to a different shell? ;-)
> >
> > Could this be what you need?
> >
> > set history = 200000
> > set savehist = (200000 merge)
> 
> The merged history is shared by all new shells.  It would not be hard to 
> load or save particular history files based on a variable, then set the 
> terminal title to a name.  That name would have to be preset somehow, 
> though... like different icons or key commands to start the different 
> sessions.

This sounds possible. The requires parts are part of
the shell, if I remember correctly, and you can ivoke
them with "predefined settings", maybe derived from
some X-related ID (-class parameter for Xterms for
example, or examining the parent xterm's properties
with the "xprop" command).



> > It saves the 200,000 last commands, and merges the new commands with
> > the previously saved ones.
> 
> Yes, along with adding 'history -S' to .logout.

This seems to be exactly what I need. I've made those
settings and will check.

Additional background: Sometimes you want to check a
user's history because he claimed "I've tried it, but
it doesn't work", of course without providing commands
and output. So you're checking his shell history file.
The problem: The file that is present could be the one
related to the shell from what he did _not_ execute
the command. With a merged approach, you could review
all commands.



> I'm starting to wonder about adding some history commands to be executed 
> as part of the prompt, so that each session shares the history 
> immediately rather than only adding to it on logout.  Maybe
> 'history -S; history -L'?  (Untested.)

For interactive shells, ~/.cshrc could contain a

	if ($?prompt) then
		... settings for interactive shells here ...
	endif

block. As if someone would _script_ with the C shell! ;-)

Additionally, there's a mechanism to take actions before and
after the prompt is written ("between commands"): You can
set up those in .cshrc as well:

	alias precmd '<happend prior to executing a command>'
	alias postcmd '<happend prior to printing the prompt>'

They can also effect the setting of the prompt itself (by
calling "set prompt = '<something>'") if this should be needed.



-- 
Polytropon
Magdeburg, Germany
Happy FreeBSD user since 4.0
Andra moi ennepe, Mousa, ...