HISTFILE
The HISTFILE environment variable defines in which file the user history is stored when exiting a Bash process. The user history is a list of commands that the user has entered in the Bash shell. By default, the HISTFILE variable is set to ~/.bash_history, which means that the history is stored in a hidden file called
.bash_history in the user's home directory. The user can change the value of the HISTFILE variable to store the history in a different file or location. For example, the following command will set the HISTFILE variable to ~/my_history:
export HISTFILE=~/my_history
This will cause the history to be stored in a file called my_history in the user's home directory. The user can also unset the HISTFILE variable to disable the history saving feature. For example, the following command will unset the HISTFILE variable:
unset HISTFILE
This will prevent the history from being written to any file when the Bash process exits. The user can view the value of the HISTFILE variable by using the echo command. For example, the following command will display the value of the HISTFILE variable:
echo $HISTFILE
The output will be something like:
/home/user/.bash_history
References:
* [LPI Exam 101 Detailed Objectives], Topic 103: GNU and Unix Commands, Objective 103.1: Work on the command line, Weight: 4, Key Knowledge Areas: Use of history and HISTFILE.
* How To Read and Set Environmental and Shell Variables on Linux, Topic: How the Environment and Environmental Variables Work.