Adding Timestamps to Shell History

Bash

vim ~/.bashrc

Add the following line to the end of the file to set the timestamp format. This example uses an ISO-like format (Year-Month-Day Hour:Minute:Second):

export HISTTIMEFORMAT="%F %T "

The space after %T ensures a clean separation between the timestamp and the command itself. You can customize the format using strftime options.

source ~/.bashrc

ZSH

Zsh handles history timestamps slightly differently. You don't need HISTTIMEFORMAT for saving, but you do need an option to enable the feature, and a flag to display the output.

vim ~/.zshrc

Add the following line to enable the saving of timestamps with history entries:

setopt EXTENDED_HISTORY

This option saves the history records in the ~/.zsh_history file with timestamps in Unix epoch format (e.g., #1506591948).

Add the following line to enable appending history immediately and sharing it across sessions (optional, but recommended):

setopt INC_APPEND_HISTORY

# or
setopt sharehistory

source ~/.zshrc

View your history with timestamps using the built-in fc command (which history is an alias for in ZSH) and the -i flag for ISO format output:

history -i

You can also use other flags like -f (US format), -E (European format), or -t for a custom strftime format.