Shell History Per Project

Shell History Per Project

This DevContainer feature provides shell history persistence per project by mounting a shell directory and creating symbolic links internally. This ensures that your shell history is preserved across container rebuilds and is isolated per project.

Features

• Per-project history isolation: Each project maintains its own shell history
• Multiple shell support: Supports zsh, bash, and fish shells
• Persistent across rebuilds: History is preserved when containers are rebuilt
• Configurable: Customizable history directory and size limits
• Symbolic link approach: Uses internal symbolic links for seamless integration

Usage

Add this feature to your devcontainer.json:

{
    "features": {
        "ghcr.io/helpers4/devcontainer/shell-history-per-project:1": {}
    }
}

Options

Option	Type	Default	Description
shell	string	zsh	Shell type to configure (zsh, bash, or fish)
historyDirectory	string	/workspaces/.shell-history	Directory where shell history will be persisted
maxHistorySize	string	10000	Maximum number of history entries to keep

Examples

Basic usage with default zsh

{
    "features": {
        "ghcr.io/helpers4/devcontainer/shell-history-per-project:1": {}
    }
}

Custom configuration

{
    "features": {
        "ghcr.io/helpers4/devcontainer/shell-history-per-project:1": {
            "shell": "bash",
            "historyDirectory": "/workspaces/.custom-history",
            "maxHistorySize": "50000"
        }
    }
}

With volume mount

For persistent history across different development sessions, you might want to add a volume mount:

{
    "features": {
        "ghcr.io/helpers4/devcontainer/shell-history-per-project:1": {
            "historyDirectory": "/workspaces/.shell-history"
        }
    },
    "mounts": [
        "source=${localWorkspaceFolder}/.devcontainer/shell-history,target=/workspaces/.shell-history,type=bind"
    ]
}

How it works

1. Creates a persistent history directory: The feature creates a dedicated directory for storing shell history files
2. Configures shell settings: Updates the shell configuration files to use the persistent history location
3. Creates symbolic links: Links the default history file location to the persistent location
4. Sets appropriate permissions: Ensures proper file permissions for the remote user

Supported shells

• Zsh: Configures .zsh_history with optimal history settings including SHARE_HISTORY, HIST_IGNORE_DUPS, etc.
• Bash: Configures .bash_history with histappend and duplicate handling
• Fish: Configures fish_history with appropriate Fish shell settings

Directory structure

After installation, you’ll have:

/workspaces/.shell-history/
├── .zsh_history          # (for zsh)
├── .bash_history         # (for bash)
└── fish_history          # (for fish)

With symbolic links from the standard locations:

• ~/.zsh_history → /workspaces/.shell-history/.zsh_history
• ~/.bash_history → /workspaces/.shell-history/.bash_history
• ~/.local/share/fish/fish_history → /workspaces/.shell-history/fish_history

Benefits over global history mounting

Unlike mounting the user’s global shell history, this approach provides:

1. Project isolation: Each project maintains its own command history
2. Team collaboration: History can be shared among team members if desired
3. Context relevance: Commands are relevant to the specific project
4. Clean development: No mixing of personal and project commands
5. Flexibility: Easy to configure different settings per project

Comparison with stuartleeks/dev-container-features shell-history

This feature differs from the existing shell-history feature by:

• Project-scoped: History is isolated per project instead of global user history
• Internal symbolic links: Uses symbolic links internally rather than mounting user’s home directory
• Collaborative: Can be shared with team members through project setup
• Configurable location: Allows customization of where history is stored within the project

Installation and Development

This feature is automatically installed when referenced in a devcontainer.json file. The installation process:

1. Creates the specified history directory
2. Updates shell configuration files
3. Creates symbolic links for seamless integration
4. Sets proper permissions for the remote user

Contributing

This feature is part of the helpers4/devcontainer-features repository. Contributions and issues are welcome!