clear command line history on exit

[nick1]

Greetings,

I'm using Ubuntu 6 server with LAMP and no GUI, just command line.
Is there a way to automatically clear the command lines history when the command line is closed? I don't like the idea of keeping a history of what I typed, including passwords, available at the command line. Perhaps including some code in a command line config file, if such a file exists?

Thank you for your time,

*Nick*

[sonic2000gr]

You could add the following line to the end of your .bash_logout file:

rm -f .bash_history

Manolis

[nick1]

Thank you for the suggestion, however it does not appear to be working. Here is what my .bash_logout file looks like:

# ~/.bash_logout: executed by bash(1) when login shell exits.

# when leaving the console clear the screen to increase privacy

if [ "$SHLVL" = 1 ]; then
[ -x /usr/bin/clear_console ] && /usr/bin/clear_console -q
fi

rm -f .bash_history

The only part I added to this file was "rm -f .bash_history".

Thanks,

*Nick*

[sonic2000gr]

weird... I just tested it on my server just to make sure...
You could also write it as

rm -f ~/.bash_history

just to make sure

[nick1]

Very weird.

# ~/.bash_logout: executed by bash(1) when login shell exits.

# when leaving the console clear the screen to increase privacy

if [ "$SHLVL" = 1 ]; then
[ -x /usr/bin/clear_console ] && /usr/bin/clear_console -q
fi

rm -f ~/.bash_history

...also fails. :-k

[sonic2000gr]

Well, final resort...

Add these lines at the end of your .bash_profile

export HISTSIZE=100
export HISTFILESIZE=100
unset HISTFILE

Change the 100 to the number of commands you would like bash to remember while you use the session. Everything will be erased when you logout (this is the unset HISTFILE)

[K.Mandla]

There's also a 'history -c' command that clears the terminal history, but I'm not sure if that's useful to you.

[big_gie]

Greetings,

I'm using Ubuntu 6 server with LAMP and no GUI, just command line.
Is there a way to automatically clear the command lines history when the command line is closed? I don't like the idea of keeping a history of what I typed, including passwords, available at the command line. Perhaps including some code in a command line config file, if such a file exists?

Thank you for your time,

*Nick*

Are you talking about the bash history file or the lines on the screen?

I don't like keeping what I've type as root written on screen. So I use :
# echo "# Clear the screen for security's sake." >> ~/.bash_logout
# echo "clear" >> ~/.bash_logout
You could add something to clear the bash history file :
# echo "# Clear bash's history file for security's sake." >> ~/.bash_logout
# echo "history -c" >> ~/.bash_logout
I don't use the latter, so the command could be wrong... Just test it.

[stream303]

If you don't even want to keep on in the first place just put

export HISTSIZE=0

in your .bashrc file

[speedman]

rm -fr ~/.bash_history

ln -s /dev/null ~/.bash_history

Your history will be available in ram for each bash session, but will be gone once you log out.


Regards,

SM

[yabbadabbadont]

# Prevent a bash history file from ever being saved.
unset HISTFILE

# Prevent less from creating a history file.
export LESSHISTFILE="-"

Just include that in your .bashrc file.

EDIT: Note that it won't change your current shell session. You will have to exit that shell, open it again, and remove the .bash_history and .lesshst (sp?) files. Then they should not show up again.