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exit without saving history

Terminal - exit without saving history
kill -9 $$
2009-03-27 23:13:53
User: stu
Functions: kill
28
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exit without saving history

this exits bash without saving the history. unlike explicitly disabling the history in some way, this works anywhere, and it works if you decide *after* issuing the command you don't want logged, that you don't want it logged

... $$ ( or ${$} ) is the pid of the current bash instance

this also works perfectly in shells that don't have $$ if you do something like

kill -9 `readlink /proc/self`
Add to favourites | Report as malicious

Alternatives

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Terminal - Alternatives

Know a better way?

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What others think

Doesn't `readlink /proc/self` return the pid of the readlink program rather than the shell's pid?

Comment by bwoodacre 216 weeks ago

heh, yeah, it does. So, time for me to stop assuming everything is a shell builtin :-)

Comment by stu 212 weeks and 6 days ago

I like this better, since a kitten dies every time you kill -9.

unset HISTFILE
Comment by syssyphus 208 weeks and 3 days ago

This is not a good way to do things because you are ignoring anything else that might be done in .bash_logout.

A cleaner way to clear your running history is like this:

OLDHISTSIZE=$HISTSIZE

HISTSIZE=0

HISTSIZE=$OLDHISTSIZE

Also, don't count on being immune from logging by the system as some servers might be running exec loggers, which are independent of the shell.

Comment by deltaray 177 weeks and 5 days ago

Your point of view

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