# History

## For Developers

Previously, `cmd2` relied on the GNU Readline library for command history. As of version 4.0.0,
`cmd2` has migrated to [prompt-toolkit](https://github.com/prompt-toolkit/python-prompt-toolkit) for
all input and history handling.

[cmd2.Cmd][] uses `prompt-toolkit` to provide familiar command-line history capabilities while also
maintaining its own data structures for the history of all commands entered by the user. When the
class is initialized, it creates an instance of the [cmd2.history.History][] class (which is a
subclass of `list`) as `cmd2.Cmd.history`.

Each time a command is executed (this gets complex, see
[Command Processing Loop](./hooks.md#command-processing-loop) for exactly when) the parsed
[cmd2.Statement][] is appended to `cmd2.Cmd.history`.

`cmd2` adds the option of making this history persistent via optional arguments to
[cmd2.Cmd.\_\_init\_\_][]. If you pass a filename in the `persistent_history_file` argument, the
contents of `cmd2.Cmd.history` will be written as compressed JSON to that history file. We chose
this format instead of plain text to preserve the complete `cmd2.Statement` object for each command.

!!! note

    `prompt-toolkit` saves everything you type, whether it is a valid command or not. `cmd2` only saves input to internal history if the command parses successfully and is a valid command. This design choice was intentional, because the contents of history can be saved to a file as a script, or can be re-run. Not saving invalid input reduces unintentional errors when doing so.

    However, this design choice causes an inconsistency between the `prompt-toolkit` history and the `cmd2` history when you enter an invalid command: it is saved to the `prompt-toolkit` history, but not to the `cmd2` history.

The `cmd2.Cmd.history` attribute, the `cmd2.history.History` class, and the
[cmd2.history.HistoryItem][] class are all part of the public API for `cmd2.Cmd`. You could use
these classes to implement your own `history` command (see below for documentation on how the
built-in `history` command works).

## For Users

You can use the :arrow_up: up and :arrow_down: down arrow keys to move through the history of
previously entered commands.

You can press `Control-p` to move to the previously entered command, and `Control-n` to move to the
next command. You can also search through the command history using `Control-r`.

By default, `prompt-toolkit` provides Emacs-style key bindings which will be familiar to users of
the GNU Readline library. You can refer to the
[readline cheat sheet](http://readline.kablamo.org/emacs.html) or you can dig into the
[Prompt Toolkit User Manual](https://python-prompt-toolkit.readthedocs.io/en/stable/pages/advanced_topics/key_bindings.html)
for all the details, including instructions for customizing the key bindings.

`cmd2` makes a third type of history access available with the `history` command. Each time the user
enters a command, `cmd2` saves the input. The `history` command lets you do interesting things with
that saved input. The examples to follow all assume that you have entered the following commands:

    (Cmd) alias create one !echo one
    Alias 'one' created
    (Cmd) alias create two !echo two
    Alias 'two' created
    (Cmd) alias create three !echo three
    Alias 'three' created
    (Cmd) alias create four !echo four
    Alias 'four' created

In its simplest form, the `history` command displays previously entered commands. With no additional
arguments, it displays all previously entered commands:

    (Cmd) history
        1  alias create one !echo one
        2  alias create two !echo two
        3  alias create three !echo three
        4  alias create four !echo four

If you give a positive integer as an argument, then it only displays the specified command:

    (Cmd) history 4
        4  alias create four !echo four

If you give a negative integer _N_ as an argument, then it displays the _Nth_ last command. For
example, if you give `-1` it will display the last command you entered. If you give `-2` it will
display the next to last command you entered, and so forth:

    (Cmd) history -2
        3  alias create three !echo three

You can use a similar mechanism to display a range of commands. Simply give two command numbers
separated by `..` or `:`, and you will see all commands between, and including, those two numbers:

    (Cmd) history 1:3
        1  alias create one !echo one
        2  alias create two !echo two
        3  alias create three !echo three

If you omit the first number, it will start at the beginning. If you omit the last number, it will
continue to the end:

    (Cmd) history :2
        1  alias create one !echo one
        2  alias create two !echo two
    (Cmd) history 2:
        2  alias create two !echo two
        3  alias create three !echo three
        4  alias create four !echo four

If you want to display the last three commands entered:

    (Cmd) history -- -3:
        2  alias create two !echo two
        3  alias create three !echo three
        4  alias create four !echo four

Notice the double dashes. These are required because the history command uses `argparse` to parse
the command line arguments. As described in the
[argparse documentation](https://docs.python.org/3/library/argparse.html) , `-3:` is an option, not
an argument:

> If you have positional arguments that must begin with - and don't look like negative numbers, you
> can insert the pseudo-argument '--' which tells parse[args]{#args}() that everything after that is
> a positional argument:

There is no zeroth command, so don't ask for it. If you are a Python programmer, you've probably
noticed this looks a lot like the slice syntax for lists and arrays. It is, with the exception that
the first history command is 1, where the first element in a Python array is 0.

Besides selecting previous commands by number, you can also search for them. You can use a simple
string search:

    (Cmd) history two
        2  alias create two !echo two

Or a regular expression search by enclosing your regex in slashes:

    (Cmd) history '/te\ +th/'
        3  alias create three !echo three

If your regular expression contains any characters that `argparse` finds interesting, like dash or
plus, you also need to enclose your regular expression in quotation marks.

This all sounds great, but doesn't it seem like a bit of overkill to have all these ways to select
commands if all we can do is display them? Turns out, displaying history commands is just the
beginning. The history command can perform many other actions:

- running previously entered commands
- saving previously entered commands to a text file
- opening previously entered commands in your favorite text editor
- running previously entered commands, saving the commands and their output to a text file
- clearing the history of entered commands

Each of these actions is invoked using a command line option. The `-r` or `--run` option runs one or
more previously entered commands. To run command number 1:

    (Cmd) history --run 1

To rerun the last two commands (there's that double dash again to make argparse stop looking for
options):

    (Cmd) history -r -- -2:

Say you want to re-run some previously entered commands, but you would really like to make a few
changes to them before doing so. When you use the `-e` or `--edit` option, `history` will write the
selected commands out to a text file, and open that file with a text editor. You make whatever
changes, additions, or deletions, you want. When you leave the text editor, all the commands in the
file are executed. To edit and then re-run commands 2-4 you would:

    (Cmd) history --edit 2:4

If you want to save the commands to a text file, but not edit and re-run them, use the `-o` or
`--output-file` option. This is a great way to create [Scripts](./scripting.md), which can be
executed using the `run_script` command. To save the first 5 commands entered in this session to a
text file:

    (Cmd) history :5 -o history.txt

The last action the history command can perform is to clear the command history using `-c` or
`--clear`:

    (Cmd) history -c

In addition to these five actions, the `history` command also has some options to control how the
output is formatted. With no arguments, the `history` command displays the command number before
each command. This is great when displaying history to the screen because it gives you an easy
reference to identify previously entered commands. However, when creating a script, the command
numbers would prevent the script from loading properly. The `-s` or `--script` option instructs the
`history` command to suppress the line numbers. This option is automatically set by the
`--output-file` and `--edit` options. If you want to output the history commands with line numbers
to a file, you can do it with output redirection:

    (Cmd) history 1:4 > history.txt

You might use `-s` or `--script` on its own if you want to display history commands to the screen
without line numbers, so you can copy them to the clipboard:

    (Cmd) history -s 1:3

`cmd2` supports both aliases and macros, which allow you to substitute a short, more convenient
input string with a longer replacement string. Say we create an alias like this, and then use it:

    (Cmd) alias create ls shell ls -aF
    Alias 'ls' created
    (Cmd) ls -d h*
    history.txt     htmlcov/

By default, the `history` command shows exactly what we typed:

    (Cmd) history
        1  alias create ls shell ls -aF
        2  ls -d h*

There are two ways to modify the display so you can see what aliases and macros were expanded to.
The first is to use `-x` or `--expanded`. These options show the expanded command instead of the
entered command:

    (Cmd) history -x
        1  alias create ls shell ls -aF
        2  shell ls -aF -d h*

If you want to see both the entered command and the expanded command, use the `-v` or `--verbose`
option:

    (Cmd) history -v
        1  alias create ls shell ls -aF
        2  ls -d h*
        2x shell ls -aF -d h*

If the entered command had no expansion, it is displayed as usual. However, if there is some change
as the result of expanding macros and aliases, then the entered command is displayed with the
number, and the expanded command is displayed with the number followed by an `x`.
