Project Bashory - Bash History

Question

In effort to be more effective and productive with terminals I have started building a bash script. It is for handling the bash history of concurrently running terminals, archiving old commands, and dynamically loading bash history profiles.

Most current development is going to be found at https://launchpad.net/bashory

First part is making the history dynamic and portable. I do this with 2 source files.

~./bashory/bashory

###
# Merging yesterday with today if recent.
# Vars need to be set could be converted to weeks or months or whatever.
bthen=$(date +%F --date="6 hours ago")
bnow=$(date +%F)
blater(){
date +%F
}
###
###
# Set history location based on day, but could esaily be changed to week or month.
bashHistory=~/.bashory/archive/$bnow.bash_history
###
###
# need to make sure a file exists right away.
touch $bashHistory
###
### doubles $HISTFILE contents
# The if statement could be removed for always or never load yesterday.
# Better yet changed to a flagable option.
#
# Yesterday is so long ago only load todays history minus 1 which gets loaded with bashory()
# Since yesterday was recent lets make sure a file exists for then
# Now only load yesterdays history
# Then add todays minus 1 which gets loaded with bashory2()
if [ $bnow = $bthen ]; then
 cat $bashHistory > $HISTFILE
else
 touch ~/.bashory/archive/$bthen.bash_history
 cat ~/.bashory/archive/$bthen.bash_history > $HISTFILE
 cat $bashHistory >> $HISTFILE
fi
###
. ~/.bashory/bastory.bashory

And ~/.bashory/bastory.bashory

###
# This file is seperated to make sure 
# These function are correct during profile switching
###
###
# Ensure verify is turned back on
shopt -s histverify
###
###
# Main action is here. 
# 
# Reset var just in case it's tomorrow 
# Just in case if it is tomorrow make sure the file exisits
# Append new command
# Add that same command to the current history
# Clear loaded histroy
# Reload new history 
bashory(){
 bashHistory=~/.bashory/archive/$(blater).bash_history
 touch $bashHistory
 history -a $bashHistory
 tail -n1 $bashHistory >> $HISTFILE
 history -cr $HISTFILE
}
###
###
# Complete change of bastory 
# Rather than load only a history profile it will source another script
# The other script will load the required history and any other needs
# consideration of how the profile unloads is important
# This will always be done by calling bashory() from a sourced ~/.bashory/profiles/profile.bash_history
# 
# 
bastory() {
 if [ -f ~/.bashory/profiles/1ドル.bastory ]; then
 . ~/.bashory/profiles/1ドル.bastory
 else
 echo no profile found at
 echo "~/.bashory/profiles/1ドル.bastory"
 echo reverting back to bashory
 bashory
 fi
}
###
###
# Load it on the prompt
export PROMPT_COMMAND="bashory"
###

Then the second part is a basic profile made of upto 3 parts. the .bashory/profiles/sample.bastory

sample="Sample"
sampleHistory=0
sample(){
 history -a $bashHistory
 tail -n1 $bashHistory >> $HISTFILE
 history -cr $HISTFILE
}
bastory(){
 history -a $bashHistory
 if [ -f ~/.bash/sample.bash_history ]; then
 bashHistory=~/.bashory/profiles/sample.bash_history
 history -a $bashHistory
 tail -n1 $bashHistory >> $HISTFILE
 history -cr $HISTFILE
 else
 bashHistory=~/.bashory/profiles/sample.bash_history
 sampleHistory=1
 cat << 'EOF' > $bashHistory
mount /cdrom
mount /dvd
umount /dvd
umount /dvd
EOF
 cat $bashHistory > $HISTFILE
 history -cr $HISTFILE
 fi
 export PROMPT_COMMAND="sample"
}
bashory() {
 . ~/.bashory/profiles/sample.bashory
}

then the ~/.bashory/profiles/sample.bashory

unset sample
unset $sample
if [ "$sampleHistory" = 1 ]; then 
 echo "sampled without sample.bash_history so deleting it now"
 rm $bashHistory
else
 echo "sampled with sample.bash_history"
fi
echo reverting to normal
. ~/.bashory/bastory.bashory

And optionally the ~/.bashory/profiles/sample.bash_history

# As Example of basic common task (ie !1, !2, !3, !4)
mount /cdrom
umount /cdrom
mount /dvd
umount /dvd 

Answer 1

First of all, you've got to give different names to bashory and bastory... I was very confused while reading the code, at first I thought it was a typo, it took me a while to realize they are different things. To avoid confusion, it would be better to give them distinctly different names.

---

In many places you use the cat command to overwrite files, like this:

cat $bashHistory > $HISTFILE

While this certainly works, if you want to copy a file use the cp command, as it's designed for that. Using cp might have another advantage, you could add the -v flag to make the operation verbose, which can be useful, if you're interested in that.

---

Sometimes you use somewhat long paths multiple times, for example ~/.bashory/profiles/1ドル.bastory in here:

bastory() {
 if [ -f ~/.bashory/profiles/1ドル.bastory ]; then
 . ~/.bashory/profiles/1ドル.bastory
 else
 echo no profile found at
 echo "~/.bashory/profiles/1ドル.bastory"
 echo reverting back to bashory
 bashory
 fi
}

This is error prone, you might mistype one of the paths, which can be hard to notice and a nightmare to debug. Cache such long-ish paths in variables to make it safer and easier, for example:

bastory() {
 profile=~/.bashory/profiles/1ドル.bastory
 if [ -f $profile ]; then
 . $profile
 else
 echo no profile found at
 echo $profile
 echo reverting back to bashory
 bashory
 fi
}

---

You do this:

bashHistory=~/.bashory/archive/$bnow.bash_history
# need to make sure a file exists right away.
touch $bashHistory

Which will file unless the directory ~/.bashory/archive already exists. Have you done anything to ensure that? (It's not anywhere in your post.)

To make this more fault tolerant, you might want to do mkdir -p ~/.bashory/archive before the touch. And the same goes for ~/.bashory/profiles.

---

Just a wild guess, maybe you wanted to write this on a single line:

blater() { date +%F; } # The trick is to put a ";" before the closing "}"

• CrandellWS: Appreciate the input I will make adjustments based on your suggestions.