.bash_history in F15/16 randomly truncated/incomplete/damaged

[stan]

On Sat, 24 Mar 2012 10:46:01 +0100
Frantisek Hanzlik <franta at hanzlici.cz> wrote:

> I'm accustomed have longer bash history - usually my HISTSIZE=10000.
> Never from Redhat 4 epoch was problems with this, but now at F15 and
> F16 I in several cases I found weirdness, when my commands are
> missing in history, in one case I had .bash_history completely empty.
> 
> IMO it is problem in newer bash versions, but yet more I suspect when
> it may be any cripled systemd behavior at init 0/6 (sorry, i want
> say poweroff.target/reboot.target ;), whether systemd (in order to
> halt/reboot computer several microseconds faster) kill bash before
> it is able save their stuff.
> 
> Have You met someone with this problem?

I suspect I have.  I remember rebooting after a complicated command
here in F15, and when I restarted I wanted to bring it back out of
history, and it wasn't there.  I thought I was just misremembering.
I've started closing terms with history -a; exit before shutdown to
avoid the problem.  I also use mc and screen - haven't really been
monitoring them for this behavior.  Also, like you, I have history set
really high, 100,000.  Maybe it is the size causing problems?

While this isn't proof, it does add support for your observation.  And
now that you've mentioned it, I'll keep an eye out.  I have rules about
commands not to add to history (ls, cd, etc.).  And not to add
duplicate commands, though this is only duplicates of the last command,
not all of history.  Perhaps there has been a change in their behavior.

> Any idea how diagnose it?

Maybe a test would be to use a unique command (not already in history)
at a term, and then shut down, and see if it is in history on reboot.
I just rebooted after upgrading the kernel.  Next upgrade I'll do this,
if I remember.