I'm using Rstudio on Windows with bash (GNU bash, version 5.3.15(1)-release ) as installed with git. On opening rstudio, in the Terminal tab, I can see the output from my previous commands, but history does not have any previous entries.
If I open bash separately, history does show my previous commands.
Can anyone suggest how I can get bash in Rstudio to save history on closing.
Thanks
Michael
Hi, sorry for the delayed response.
So far I cannot reproduce this problem (i.e. the command history is still showing after I restart RStudio/terminal).
I have some theories, but need some additional information:
echo $HOMEecho $HISTFILEecho $HOMEecho $HISTFILE report?What are your settings in Tools > Global Options > Terminal? For example, here's mine:
Hi Gary
Many thanks for the response.
version of Rstudio is 2025.05.0
The problem occurs both using an Rstudio project, and with Project(None).
In fact, if I switch between projects, the terminal history is forgotten.
In the Rstudio terminal
echo $HOME gives
/c/Users/michael
echo $HISTFILE gives
/c/Users/michael/.bash_history
whereas in the git-bash terminal I get
/h
and
/h/.bash_history
My settings in global options->terminal are exactly the same as yours.
Thanks for looking into this.
Michael
When you say "terminal history is forgotten" is the history always completely empty, or does it have some entries but is missing some (e.g. the most recent commands)?
Turns out there is a long-standing issue with bash (from git-for-windows) not saving history when its terminal closes.
For example, the Windows terminal has the same problem: Pane history not being saved (GitBash) · Issue #11697 · microsoft/terminal · GitHub.
Also VSCode: Some shells don't remember history · Issue #151105 · microsoft/vscode · GitHub
I'm looking to see if there's anything we (RStudio) can do about this, or if maybe you can configure bash to save history incrementally instead of only when the shell is exiting.
I'll post more findings when I have them!
Also opened this RStudio issue: On Windows, terminal bash shells don't save bash history when RStudio session closes · Issue #18476 · rstudio/rstudio · GitHub
If you type exit in the terminal to close it before shutting down RStudio (or switching projects, etc.) then it should save history, but that's not very friendly.
Thanks.
If I type history after opening Rstudio then I get
1 history
Though I can see output from previous commands as it was displayed when output.
Typing exit before shutting down Rstudio does preserve the history, but the previous terminal output is then lost.
Based on the info you provided, here are instructions on how you should be able to resolve this. I haven't tested this locally, so if you give it a try please report back on how it goes.
There are two independent problems here.
Bash keeps history in memory and writes $HISTFILE when the shell exits normally — i.e. when you type exit. Historically it also tried to write on SIGHUP, but bash 4.2 removed that (the save routine isn't safe to call from a signal handler), and only a narrow case was restored later.
On Windows this path is especially unreliable: the shell runs behind winpty/ConPTY, and when the terminal goes away Windows delivers a CTRL_CLOSE_EVENT with a short kill timer that MSYS2 does not convert into a survivable SIGHUP. The result is that the shell is terminated outright and never writes anything.
RStudio closes terminal shells when you close a terminal pane, switch projects, or quit the IDE — none of which is a clean exit. Hence: history forgotten.
From your diagnostics:
| Shell | $HOME |
$HISTFILE |
|---|---|---|
| RStudio Terminal | /c/Users/michael |
/c/Users/michael/.bash_history |
| Git Bash (icon) | /h |
/h/.bash_history |
This is a known RStudio behaviour (rstudio/rstudio#12333): RStudio's terminal sets its own HOME rather than inheriting the one Git Bash computes from %HOMEDRIVE%%HOMEPATH% (your H: drive).
So there are two separate history files, and any config you put in ~/.bashrc only applies to whichever shell happens to be reading that ~.
The plan: one shared config file, referenced from both home directories, that flushes history after every command and points both shells at a single history file.
Run all of these commands in a Git Bash terminal. Adjust
/c/Users/michaelif your
username differs.
cat > /c/Users/michael/.bash_common <<'EOF'
# ---- shared bash history configuration ----
# One history file for every shell, on the local disk (not the H: network drive)
export HISTFILE=/c/Users/michael/.bash_history
shopt -s histappend # append at exit instead of overwriting
HISTSIZE=100000 # lines kept in memory
HISTFILESIZE=100000 # lines kept on disk
HISTCONTROL=ignoreboth # skip duplicates and leading-space commands
# Flush new history to disk after every command.
# Git Bash's git-prompt.sh already sets PROMPT_COMMAND, so append rather than replace,
# and guard against being sourced twice.
case "$PROMPT_COMMAND" in
*"history -a"*) ;;
*) PROMPT_COMMAND="history -a${PROMPT_COMMAND:+; $PROMPT_COMMAND}" ;;
esac
# Also flush if the shell does get a chance to shut down.
trap 'history -a' EXIT HUP
EOF
RStudio may launch the shell as a non-login shell (reads .bashrc) while the Git Bash icon launches a login shell (reads .bash_profile). Setting up both covers either case.
for h in /c/Users/michael /h; do
# .bashrc loads the shared config
grep -qs 'bash_common' "$h/.bashrc" 2>/dev/null || \
echo '[ -f /c/Users/michael/.bash_common ] && . /c/Users/michael/.bash_common' >> "$h/.bashrc"
# .bash_profile makes sure login shells read .bashrc
grep -qs 'bashrc' "$h/.bash_profile" 2>/dev/null || \
printf '%s\n' '[ -f ~/.profile ] && . ~/.profile' \
'[ -f ~/.bashrc ] && . ~/.bashrc' >> "$h/.bash_profile"
done
The grep -qs guards make this safe to re-run and safe if you already have these files.
Close all Git Bash windows and restart RStudio, then in each of the RStudio Terminal and a standalone Git Bash window:
echo $HISTFILE # expect /c/Users/michael/.bash_history in BOTH
echo hello-from-$$ # run any command
tail -n 2 "$HISTFILE" # the command should already be in the file
The third line is the real test — if echo hello-from-... appears in the file immediately, without exiting the shell, the flush is working.
Then switch RStudio projects, come back, open a terminal, and press the up arrow. Your previous commands should be there.
Both shells now share one history file. Commands from the RStudio Terminal and from Git Bash interleave in a single list. That's usually what people want. Note that a running shell won't see another shell's new commands until it restarts; if you want that too, add history -n after history -a in the PROMPT_COMMAND line — but be aware it makes the up-arrow list stop reflecting just your own session.
History moved off the H: drive. If H: is a network home drive, writing history on every prompt would have meant a network round-trip per command. The config above keeps it on C:. Your existing /h/.bash_history is left untouched — if you want to keep those old commands:
cat /h/.bash_history >> /c/Users/michael/.bash_history
Your Git and SSH config are not affected. This only changes HISTFILE. Anything in /h/.gitconfig or /h/.ssh stays where it is and keeps working exactly as before.
Hi Gary
Many thanks for that, it looks promising. I'm busy with other stuff at the moment, but l will give it a go and let you know if it works.
Michael