٩(̾●̮̮̃̾•̃̾)۶ better_history.sh

This script gives a friendlier access CLI or GUI (with rofi) to the user’s shell history.

The user can select a previous command and it will be put in the clipboard’s buffer using xclip.
The user can then paste the command using Ctrl + Shift + v in the terminal. (Or use the rofi options to automatically run it)

Especially useful when you try to recover a long command you used a long time ago.

This script do not change the history file and should work in all situations. Or a least will.

CLI : Command Line Interface - h

From a terminal emulator, it is supposed to be launched with a simple “h what_ever_you_want”
Thanks to an alias : alias h="/path/to/this/script" (in “.bashrc” file, “.zshrc”, etc…)

If you remember that the command contain the word “debug”, you can use “h debug” to find it back quickly.

Works better with a big history record :
export HISTSIZE=10000 (in “.bashrc” file, “.zshrc”, etc…)

GUI : Graphical User Interface - Rofi

Use rofi interface with a shortcut for your window manager. (Alt + h)

sxhkd (“sxhkdrc”) : shortcut daemon for all window managers

alt + h
/home/umen/SyNc/Scripts/System/better_history/better_history.sh rofi

openbox only (“rc.xml”) :

<keybind key="A-h">
<action name="execute">
<command>/home/umen/SyNc/Scripts/System/better_history/better_history.sh rofi</command>
</action>
</keybind>

Todo :

• Try to find the directory the command was run on. Maybe based on previous “cd” to recreate absolute path and/or test if target exist (file) without changing history file syntax
• better visual for long commands
• support for more shells
• support help on dependancies for more distributions
• future usage of ~/.my_history_selection to sort by most used command, instead of last used commands
• improve unreliable regex for zsh history file (sed 's/.*:0;//')
• use rofi with options --rofi instead of argument
• use current shell, instead of default shell $SHELL
• is it working if the user have customized history format ? if not, find solution
• Bug with selection with “Binary file (standard input)” match ???
  …

Not Todo (excluded on purpose, stay simple and portable)

• modify the history file in any way to “add useful informations”
• usage of regular expressions in search