ZSH - output whole history?

Question

I recently switched from bash to zsh. In bash, one way (besides recursive search) that I used to find previously-run commands was history | grep whatever, where whatever is the bit of command I remember.

In zsh, this isn't working. history returns only a few items, even though my .zsh_history file contains many entries, which I have configured it to do.

How can I output my whole history, suitable for searching with grep?

Related: https://unix.stackexchange.com/q/417094/221410 – jdhao Mar 24 '21 at 07:30 — jdhao, Mar 24 '21 at 07:30

score 163 · Accepted Answer · answered Jan 12 '11 at 21:49

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History accepts a range in zsh entries as [first] [last] arguments, so to get them all run history 0.

To get the zsh help (at least with mind) type Alt-h over the history command and this will bring up the help for built-ins.

answered Jan 12 '11 at 21:49

Kyle Brandt

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Great! That's an annoying default for me, though, so I'm adding this to my aliases file: `alias history="history 0"` – Nathan Long Jan 12 '11 at 22:06
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Not that it matters but the history list starts at 1 and not 0. – ggustafsson Dec 02 '11 at 14:40
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I'm using this alias myself: `alias h='history 1 | grep'` – Harald Nordgren Apr 02 '16 at 15:03
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This doesn't seem to work for me: my `~/.zsh_history` has 10066 lines, but `history 0` (or its equivalent, `fc -l 0`), only prints out 4999 lines. – jayhendren May 31 '17 at 17:29
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To the `history 1 | grep` people, I hope you know about `ctrl+r` - best trick/shortcut ever! – Emil Vatai Mar 09 '19 at 01:38
@EmilVatai or even better [zsh-history-substring-search](https://github.com/zsh-users/zsh-history-substring-search) – Arialdo Martini Apr 06 '19 at 08:20
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How can I get the `history` command manual? I'm in Mac, and `man history` display BSD command builtin – ihsan Aug 07 '21 at 10:54
Great tip about `ctrl-r` from @EmilVatai just be aware that if there's a single command or script found it will be immediately executed, may not be something you want – DroidIn.net Oct 08 '22 at 17:29
I am using `alias history="history 0 | less +G"` – percy507 Mar 30 '23 at 02:48

wjv · Answer 2 · 2021-09-10T09:13:06.837

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The accepted answer is correct, but it’s worth noting that you don’t need to call the external grep binary to do the search, since that ability is baked in. I have this function defined in my .zshrc:

histsearch() { fc -lim "*$@*" 1 }

Notes:

fc is the zsh builtin that controls the interactive history. history is equivalent to fc -l.
The -m flag requires a pattern, which must be quoted.
The -i flag adds a timestamp.
fc has many more tricks up its sleeve (e.g. limiting the search to internal history for the current session). See the zshbuiltins(1) man page or the official documentation.

Edit (2021-01-27):

A major advantage of using this method over just grepping the zsh history file is you get human-readable timestamps via -i. Of course, this only works if you’ve enabled the saving of timestamps to the history file in the first place:

setopt EXTENDED_HISTORY

Over the years, I’ve also added the -D flag to my function, which shows the runtime of the command in history. (This is again dependent on EXTENDED_HISTORY.) Plus, I’ve renamed the function to hgrep, which I find easier to remember:

hgrep () { fc -Dlim "*$@*" 1 }

edited Sep 10 '21 at 09:13

answered Apr 05 '16 at 07:23

wjv

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Better yet is to use "\*$@\*" (note additional stars) pattern instead of "$@" as the latter yields only exact matches. – Piotr Dobrogost May 07 '18 at 11:50
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You’re completely right, @PiotrDobrogost! I’m not sure how I managed to submit this answer in the state that I did — I’m guessing I must’ve typed that function from memory. As it stands it’s not very usable, so I’m going to edit the answer to incorporate the asterisks. – wjv May 07 '18 at 13:15
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I just switched to zsh from bash, this helped me out. I wished I had this tip years ago. All that time I've been foolishly using grep. – Halfstop Apr 24 '20 at 13:53
Using grep is certainly not "foolish", @Halfstop. In fact, I would say it's the obvious thing to do, and probably how most people would accomplish this task daily. My answer is more of a "zsh insider alternative". (But it turns out that it does have certain advantages, as I pointed out in the edit I made to the answer in January this year.) – wjv Apr 06 '21 at 08:04
The 2nd quote in the last command is probably a typo. – Teddy C Sep 09 '21 at 07:01
@TeddyC Yeah I have no idea how that crept in. Fixed; thanks for pointing it out. – wjv Sep 10 '21 at 09:13
if you’re calling it `hgrep`, wouldn't it be better to write it something like `hgrep() { fc -Dli 1 | grep $@ }`? EDIT: I tried this and it’s quite slow, compared to other methods. Must be decoding -Di before feeding to grep. – Rick Jul 04 '23 at 22:53

Daniel Schaffrath · Answer 3 · 2017-10-12T07:33:14.353

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Have a look at fzf. It helps not only finding "whatever-particles" in your shell history, but also in other interesting places, e.g. browser history, directory history, etc.

fzf is a command-line fuzzy finder. That means you can search for particles or fractions of what you are looking for and it will display a collection of matches which you can continuously refine. It's really a game changer.

The homepage of the author contains a number of illustrative examples.

edited Oct 12 '17 at 07:33

answered Oct 09 '17 at 22:23

Daniel Schaffrath

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Consider adding some reference to this answer supporting what you state. – Vomit IT - Chunky Mess Style Oct 09 '17 at 22:44
Welcome to Super User! Please read [How to recommend software](https://meta.superuser.com/a/5330/213131) for **minimum required information** and suggestions on how to recommend software on Super User. To keep your answer useful even if the provided link(s) breaks these details should be edited into your answer. – I say Reinstate Monica Oct 09 '17 at 23:31

ZSH - output whole history?

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