History not saved on some machines

[XinranZhao]

Environment

Windows build number: Microsoft Windows [Version 10.0.18363.476]

Windows Terminal version (if applicable): 0.7.3382.0

Any other software?
Ubuntu 16.04.6 LTS

Expected behavior

command history can be saved and got accessed by command 'history'

Actual behavior

I have the same profiles.json file for multiple pc machines running Win10. Strangely, some of them can save history properly and some of them cannot. Can you help me with some hint what is stopping some machines from saving command history?

[zadjii-msft]

@XinranZhao What shell are you using (cmd, powershell, bash, zsh, etc.)? It's typically the responsibility of the shell to save the command history, so whatever problem you're having is probably related specifically to the shell, not the terminal, though I'll be happy to help you figure it out 😄

[XinranZhao]

@XinranZhao What shell are you using (cmd, powershell, bash, zsh, etc.)? It's typically the responsibility of the shell to save the command history, so whatever problem you're having is probably related specifically to the shell, not the terminal, though I'll be happy to help you figure it out 😄

@zadjii-msft Appreciate your reply. As mentioned I only use terminal for WSL coding so the shell is bash:

GNU bash, version 4.3.48(1)-release (x86_64-pc-linux-gnu)
Copyright (C) 2013 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
License GPLv3+: GNU GPL version 3 or later http://gnu.org/licenses/gpl.html

I am comparing two Win10 PCs of mine, with the same profile.json setting for windows terminal, and exactly the same .bashrc for WSL, but one of them can save history and the other cannot. Can you advise me how to troubleshoot this problem?

Thanks!

[XinranZhao]

I agree that this is not an issue with WT, so I herein close this thread. Thanks a lot for the help!

[sinistram]

It will be great to support history keeping in the terminal (for cmd and etc).

[DHowett-MSFT]

@sinistram thanks for the feedback! As per #3966 (comment) not really the terminal's job to save history... unless you're referring to the scrollback history.

[sinistram]

@DHowett-MSFT I mean in windows cmd, powershell and etc history of called commands is not keeping after shell restart. And it will be great to have a functionality for keeping commands history even after pc reboot (like in osx).

Imagine that you have some long command and every time you restart terminal you have to write command again and again. I understand that cmd is not providing this feature, but may be it is possible to implement it in the terminal?

[DHowett-MSFT]

The main reason command history is so bad in cmd and legacy powershell is because we implemented it in the “terminal” 25 years ago.

The windows console host keeps track of the history for every legacy process.

Please switch to a more civilized shell, like powershell 6 or 7. Even powershell 5.1 supports saving history to a file. The only shell in common modern use that doesn’t is cmd.