[kwlug-disc] bash: HISTTIMEFORMAT

[Alex Kleider]

Thanks for the warning.
I think I'd best stick to bash since the aged don't adapt to change very well:-)!!

Alex Kleider (set from my current gizmo)

On Wednesday, March 4th, 2026 at 12:20 PM, Doug Moen <doug at moens.org> wrote:

> zsh is a bit weird for someone used to bash. But you can just install the Debian zsh package and try it out without changing anything else in your system.
>
> On Wed, Mar 4, 2026, at 8:08 PM, Alex Kleider via kwlug-disc wrote:
>
>> Am I correct in assuming that zsh is an alternative to bash?
>> Not sure I'd want to change shells and run the risk of finding myself in very unfamiliar territory!
>> a
>>
>> Alex Kleider (set from my current gizmo)
>>
>> On Wednesday, March 4th, 2026 at 8:52 AM, Jason Eckert <jason.eckert at gmail.com> wrote:
>>
>>> That option doesn't work in bash's history built-in function. You'd have to use zsh instead.
>>>
>>> On Wed, 4 Mar 2026 at 11:37, Alex Kleider via kwlug-disc <kwlug-disc at kwlug.org> wrote:
>>>
>>>> Doesn't seem to work on my Debian XFCE system (a release or two ago.)
>>>> $ history -i
>>>> bash: history: -i: invalid option
>>>> history: usage: history [-c] [-d offset] [n] or history -anrw [filename] or history -ps arg [arg...]
>>>>
>>>> Alex Kleider (set from my current gizmo)
>>>>
>>>> On Wednesday, March 4th, 2026 at 6:02 AM, Jason Eckert <jason.eckert at gmail.com> wrote:
>>>>
>>>>> Like Raymond, the 'history -i' command has been my go-to for ages.
>>>>> I switched to zsh long ago for aesthetic consistency... it matches zfs, zswap, etc… I’m nothing if not alphabetically aligned.
>>>>>
>>>>> On Wed, 4 Mar 2026 at 08:52, Raymond Chen <raymondchen625 at gmail.com> wrote:
>>>>>
>>>>>> Very nice! BTW, in zsh it's `history -i`.
>>>>>>
>>>>>> On Wed, Mar 4, 2026 at 8:37 AM CrankyOldBugger <crankyoldbugger at gmail.com> wrote:
>>>>>>
>>>>>>> Nice one!
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>> On Wed, 4 Mar 2026 at 03:11, Chris Frey <cdfrey at foursquare.net> wrote:
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>> It turns out that by setting the environment variable HISTTIMEFORMAT
>>>>>>>> on startup to something like "%Y-%m-%dT%T " bash will both display
>>>>>>>> the timestamp of all commands when you use the 'history' command,
>>>>>>>> but also store the timestamps in the .bash_history file.
>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>> Now I have an automatic trail of timed breadcrumbs in case I need it,
>>>>>>>> for all my shell work.
>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>> Just passing along the tip.
>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>> - Chris
>>>>>>>>
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