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I'm looking for a setting that will make it so that when i hit the up arrow, zsh shows commands i have recently edited. The catch is, i only want unique commands. Currently, if i type echo "hello world" 50 times, i have to press up arrow 50 times to get the command i used before typing the echo command. This is annoying to say the least.

Any thoughts on what setting i need to enable/disable?

2 Answers 2

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HIST_IGNORE_ALL_DUPS will throw out all previous matches of the command, which can be confusing when using the history as a log of what you did later:

HIST_IGNORE_ALL_DUPS: If a new command line being added to the history list duplicates an older one, the older command is removed from the list (even if it is not the previous event).

A closer fit to your needs is probably the HIST_FIND_NO_DUPS option:

HIST_FIND_NO_DUPS: When searching for history entries in the line editor, do not display duplicates of a line previously found, even if the duplicates are not contiguous.

Or maybe the HIST_IGNORE_DUPS, but, as RichieHH notes, it also leads to an incomplete account of history:

HIST_IGNORE_DUPS: Do not enter command lines into the history list if they are duplicates of the previous event.

See: man zshoptions | less -p History.

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    HIST_FIND_NO_DUPS is a better answer than mine I think.
    – Mikel
    Apr 20, 2011 at 21:27
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    Bash: export HISTCONTROL=ignoredups. ZSH: setopt HIST_IGNORE_DUPS
    – spyle
    Mar 11, 2020 at 17:39
  • No, HIST_IGNORE_DUPS is not the best as it leaves the old instance as opposed to "refreshing it" in history. HIST_FIND_NO_DUPS is good. HIST_IGNORE_ALL_DUPS better because it removes the oldest instance and inserts the newest. Way better to use history to remember where you were!
    – RichieHH
    Nov 20, 2020 at 11:17
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I can't see any way to literally only do that, but if you set the HIST_IGNORE_ALL_DUPS option, only the most recent version of a command will be retained in history, giving you the same effect.

See man zshoptions for details.

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  • Works great! Unless i am missing something, this is exactly what i wanted :) Apr 20, 2011 at 16:35

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