Storing Multi line commands in history using shopt
Storing Multi line commands in history using shopt It is hard to reuse multi-line commands as the newlines are replaced by semicolon and the many line command is converted to a single line. For example: for i in $( ls *.txt) do pwd echo $i cp $i /bin done After executing it, when you press up button to reuse it, the command becomes: for i in $( ls *.txt); do pwd; echo $i; cp $i /bin; done Forget about reusing, I cant even understand what it does when so many things are stuffed in one line! I found a way using which it is possible to retain the newlines in history using shopt . shopt -s lithist Now when you press up button you will see the command in multiple lines! win! If you want this to be enabled by default add " shopt -s lithist " at the end of file ~/.bashrc UPDATE Also multi-line commands are screwed up when you add comments. For example for i in $(ls) do echo "a" #echo $i done becomes for i in $(ls); do echo "a" done (note that there is no semico...