How to make bash remember history of previous sessions?

Question

I have MacOSX but this should be *NIX-generic.
In my computer at work, my bash shell remembers history from previous sessions, even if I just opened a new terminal.
In my computer at home, this doesn't happen.
I have the same OS in both machines and I don't have any history related setting in .bash_profile.
How could I set this up on my home computer so it remembers history across sessions?

Answer 1

Please ensure that you are running bash at home. This can be done with the following

echo $SHELL 

or

echo $0

or

ps -p $$

Output on method one should be something like

/bin/bash

Method 2 should output should be

-bash

Method 3 should output some process with BASH in it.

If you are truly running bash there should be a .bash_history file under your home folder. Your user account might not be setup properly if you are not receiving a history.

Some environmental options to consider

HISTIGNORE HISTSIZE HISTFILE

To check these settings use:

echo $HISTSIZE
echo $HISTIGNORE

To update use:

export HISTSIZE=9000

If you are not using BASH as your shell you can mod your account (if you have privs) by:

usermod -s /bin/bash <username>