Docker and .bash_history

Question

Is there any way to share a .bash_history volume with a docker container so that everytime I go into a shell I have my bash history available for scrolling thro

Answer 1

You can also achieve this with a named volume and tell bash where he can find the bash history file by defining the HISTFILE environment variable. I explained a bit more here: https://antistatique.net/en/we/blog/2019/11/12/tips-docker-keep-your-bash-history

Answer 2

My solution is useful when:

• you don't want to share your local .bash_history with .bash_history in your container
• you use other shell (like fish shell) but you want to save .bash_history between your builds
• you don't want to commit .bash_history to git repo but you want to create it automatically inside same directory when a container starts

I assume file structure to be:

docker-compose.yml
docker/
   \--> bash/
      \--> .bashrc
      \--> .bash_history

docker-compose.yml

web-service:
  build: .
  volumes:
  - ./docker/bash/.bashrc:/home/YOUR_USER_NAME/.bashrc
  - ./docker/bash:/home/YOUR_USER_NAME/bash

./docker/bash/.bashrc - it will automatically create .bash_history:

export HISTFILE=~/bash/.bash_history
touch $HISTFILE

Optionally, you can add to .gitignore:

docker/bash/.bash_history

Answer 3

To keep IPython history, you can set the IPYTHONDIR environment variable to somewhere within your mapped volume.

The docker-compose.override.yml would look like this:

version: '2'
services:
  some-service:
    environment:
      - IPYTHONDIR=/app/.ipython
    volumes:
      - .:/app

Answer 4

For bash

volumes:
        - ./.data/shell_history/php_bash_history.txt:/home/www-data/.bash_history #bash

For sh

volumes:
    - ./.data/shell_history/nginx_bash_history.txt:/root/.ash_history #sh

Answer 5

In your docker-compose.override.yml:

version: '2'
services:
  whatever:
    …
    volumes:
      - …
      - ~/.bash_history:/root/.bash_history

Answer 6

It is the example from the documentation about volume: Mount a host file as a data volume:

docker run --rm -it -v ~/.bash_history:/root/.bash_history ubuntu /bin/bash

This will drop you into a bash shell in a new container, you will have your bash history from the host and when you exit the container, the host will have the history of the commands typed while in the container.