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Is there a way to temporarily suspend history tracking in bash, so as to enter a sort of "incognito" mode? I'm entering stuff into my terminal that I don't want recorded, sensitive financial info.

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3 Answers

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This should be what you're looking for:

unset HISTFILE

From man bash

If HISTFILE is unset, or if the history file is unwritable, the history is not saved.

Alternatively, if you want to toggle it off and then back on again, it may be easier to do:

Turn Off

set +o history

Turn on

set -o history
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The value of HISTFILE is only checked when bash exits, so the first method doesn't work as is (if you restore the value, the command will be saved). set +o history does work as directed. – Gilles Apr 8 '11 at 20:10
Thanks, excellent. I'll use set +o history and set -o history to toggle back and forth when I'm doing secret stuff ;) – TK Kocheran Apr 8 '11 at 23:38
up vote 4 down vote

Using bash, set HISTCONTROL="ignorespace" and precede with space any command you do not wish to be recorded in history. In case you forgot to take any measures, there is also history -d <number> for deleting a specific entry or history -c for clearing the entire command history.

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up vote 1 down vote

Make sure that HISTCONTROL contains ignorespace. You'll probably want to add HISTCONTROL=ignorespace (or HISTCONTROL=ignoredups:ignorespace or something) to your ~/.bashrc. Then any command line that begins with a space is omitted from the history.

Another possibility is to start a new bash session that doesn't save its history.

$ bash
$ unset HISTFILE
$ sooper-sekret-command
$ exit
$ #back in the parent shell
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