insights/content/tutorials/self-hosted-hishtory/index.md

title	description	summary	date	lastmod	draft	noindex	nav_weight	categories	tags	images	authors
Installing Self-Hosted HiSHtory: A Step-by-Step Guide	Learn how to install the self-hosted version of HiSHtory, a program that stores terminal history context. Follow this easy-to-follow guide for a smooth setup process.	HiSHtory is a powerful tool that stores terminal history context, including command execution dates, directories, and duration. This article shows you how to install the self-hosted version of HiSHtory, allowing you to manage your terminal history with ease.	2025-03-20T22:00:00+07:00		false	false	1000	Self-Hosted	Bash Zsh HiSHtory Linux		ditatompel

If you frequently work using the Linux Terminal, the history feature on the shell we use can greatly help increase our productivity. However, by default, shells such as bash or zsh have some limited command history features, for example:

• The information from which directory a command was run is not saved.
• There is no information about whether a command was successfully executed or not.
• There is no information on how long it takes for your computer to complete a command.

For most Linux users, these features are indeed more than sufficient and not essential. Storing extra information can, in effect, increase disk I/O and affect machine performance too. However, for some other Linux users, this feature can be very helpful when conducting investigations or troubleshooting on a system.

If this information can be stored centrally and searched based on specific keywords, it will certainly help alleviate the task of Linux System Administrators who often use many complex commands with pipelines. Fortunately, there is a program called HiSHtory.

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Introduction to HiSHtory

HiSHtory is a program that stores terminal history context, including the date and time when the command was executed, the location of the active directory when the command was executed, and the duration of command execution. This information can be stored locally (on a per-machine basis) or centrally through a client-server architecture.

In other words, you can easily perform complex shell pipeline searches from a server or another machine, even if you're accessing them from your laptop or one of your computers, without having to physically or remotly switch between machines.

Using Self-hosted HiSHtory

In this article, I will demonstrate self-hosted HiSHtory setup using 2 laptops with Linux operating systems. The details of the laptops are as follows:

• The laptop with hostname T420, having IP address 192.168.2.22, will serve as both the server and client.
• The laptop with hostname P50 will act as the client.

Please note that I will be utilizing the Docker version of the HiSHtory server, so ensure that the server computer has Docker installed and configured to run properly.

Configuring HiSHtory Server

1. Log in to the server computer and clone the repository ddworken/hishtory and enter the directory:

git clone https://github.com/ddworken/hishtory.git
cd hishtory

2. Edit the backend/server/docker-compose.yml file and adjust the configuration as needed. Since I'm using PostgreSQL as my backend database, I updated the POSTGRES_PASSWORD environment variable from TODO_YOUR_POSTGRES_PASSWORD_HERE to MyStrongPassword. Additionally, because the default PostgreSQL password configuration has changed, I also need to update the value of the HISTORY_POSTGRES_DB environment variable to match the new password. Furthermore, since port 80 on the server is already in use by another process, I've updated the HiSHtory server listen port on the host machine from port 80 to port 45680.

Here's an overview of my backend/server/docker-compose.yml configuration:

version: "3.8"
networks:
    hishtory:
        driver: bridge
services:
    postgres:
        image: postgres
        restart: unless-stopped
        networks:
            - hishtory
        environment:
            POSTGRES_PASSWORD: MyStrongPass
            POSTGRES_DB: hishtory
            PGDATA: /var/lib/postgresql/data/pgdata
        volumes:
            - postgres-data:/var/lib/postgresql/data
        healthcheck:
            test: pg_isready -U postgres
            interval: 10s
            timeout: 3s
    hishtory:
        depends_on:
            postgres:
                condition: service_healthy
        networks:
            - hishtory
        build:
            context: ../../
            dockerfile: ./backend/server/Dockerfile
        restart: unless-stopped
        deploy:
            restart_policy:
                condition: on-failure
                delay: 3s
        environment:
            HISHTORY_POSTGRES_DB: postgresql://postgres:MyStrongPass@postgres:5432/hishtory?sslmode=disable
            HISHTORY_COMPOSE_TEST: $HISHTORY_COMPOSE_TEST
        ports:
            - 45680:8080
volumes:
    postgres-data:

3. Next, build the Docker image by running this command:

docker compose -f backend/server/docker-compose.yml build

4. After the build process is complete, try running the HiSHtory server using this command:

docker compose -f backend/server/docker-compose.yml up

Wait a few moments and ensure that the HiSHtory server is running properly. This can be verified by using the docker ps command or checking directly with the HiSHtory HTTP server: curl -sIL http://127.0.0.1:45680 (adjust the IP:port according to your configuration).

Configuring HiSHtory Clients

One important consideration is that, since we will be using a self-hosted setup, you must add the environment variable HISHTORY_SERVER=http://<ip>:<port> to your .bashrc or .zshrc file (adjust the IP address and port used).

Additionally, by default, HiSHtory client is installed in ~/.hishtory. However, to keep my $HOME directory organized, I will use the ~/.config/hishtory directory. This can be achieved by adding HISHTORY_PATH=.config/hishtory to your .bashrc or .zshrc.

So, my .bashrc or .zshrc has the following additional configuration:

export HISHTORY_PATH=.config/hishtory
# adjust IP and port below with your environment settings
export HISHTORY_SERVER="http://192.168.2.22:45680"

After adding these environment variables, reload your shell session, then download and run the available install script:

curl https://hishtory.dev/install.py | python3 -

The script will automatically generate your device ID and secret key as well as various other basic configurations. Save the secret key that appears so you can use it for synchronization on other computers.

To configure on a second computer or server, repeat this process on each computer or server. After completing the HiSHtory installation using the last install script above, run the following command:

hishtory init $YOUR_HISHTORY_SECRET_FROM_FIRST_DEVICE

Replace $YOUR_HISHTORY_SECRET_FROM_FIRST_DEVICE with the secret key from the first device.

Note

: The secret key can also be displayed by running the hishtory status command on the first device.

I hope this helps!