How To Add Date and Time To Bash History

As Linux users and engineers, we often have to look back in our bash history to figure out exactly where things went wrong. The worst is when you execute the `history` command and all you get is a list of the commands you ran without the date/time of the command execution included. 


Thankfully, there's an easy solution. Simply run the following command which defines the `HISTTIMEFORMAT` environment variable and exports that environment variable whenever you login/establish a new shell. 

```

echo 'export HISTTIMEFORMAT="%d/%m/%y %T "' >> ~/.bash_profile

```

Where:

%d – Day

%m – Month

%y – Year

%T – Time

 

After executing the command, run `source ~/.bash_profile` or close your bash shell and open a new one.

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