I am using the Terminal app on OS X to try and clear my command history. The entries within my $HOME/.bash_history file do not match what is returned by the history command. The echo $0 command tells me that my Terminal session is using the bash shell (-bash) so I would expect these to be the same.
Also, the history -c command only clears the history that I see in the Terminal app with the history command, it doesn't affect the contents of the $HOME/.bash_history file. Please could someone help to explain my misunderstanding?
Best Answer
Ok, apologies, I just realised that the command history is cached in memory until the terminal session is exited cleanly. The
$HOME/.bash_historyfile andhistorycommand now match as expected.