Get-History

 

Additional Resources for Get-History

Listing the Current Windows PowerShell History http://www.microsoft.com/technet/scriptcenter/topics/msh/cmdlets/get-history.mspx

 

SYNOPSIS

Gets a list of the commands entered during the current session.

 

SYNTAX

Get-History [[-id] <long[]>] [[-count] <int>] [<CommonParameters>]

 

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

The Get-History cmdlet gets the session history, that is, the list of commands entered during the current session. Windows PowerShell automatically maintains a history of each session. You can save the session history in XML or CSV format. By default, history files are saved in the home directory, but you can save the file in any location.

 

PARAMETERS

 

-id <long[]>

Specifies the ID number of a command in the session history. Get-History gets only the specified command. If you use Id and Count, Get-History gets the most recent commands ending with the command specified by the Id parameter.

 

Required?	false
Position?	1
Default value	Immediate ID Predecessor
Accept pipeline input?	true (ByValue)
Accept wildcard characters?	false

 

-count <int>

Displays the specified number of most-recent history entries. The default is 32. If you use both Count and Id in a command, the display ends with the command specified by Id.

 

Required?	false
Position?	2
Default value	32
Accept pipeline input?	false
Accept wildcard characters?	false

 

<CommonParameters>

This cmdlet supports the common parameters: -Verbose, -Debug, -ErrorAction, -ErrorVariable, and -OutVariable. For more information, type, "get-help about_commonparameters".

 

INPUT TYPE

None

 

RETURN TYPE

HistoryInfo objects

 

NOTES

 

For more information, type "Get-Help Get-History -detailed". For technical information, type "Get-Help Get-History -full".

 

The session history is a list of the commands entered during the session, along with the ID, which represents the order of execution, the status, and start and end times of the command. As you enter each command, Windows PowerShell adds it to the history so that you can reuse it.

 

By default, the history can hold 64 commands, but you can change it by changing the value of the $MaximumHistoryCount variable. When the history is full, the oldest command entries are deleted to make room for new ones.

 

You cannot clear the session history except by ending the Windows PowerShell session.

 

Commands are added to the history when the command finishes executing, not when it's entered. If commands take some time to complete, or are executing in a nested prompt (which complete only when you exit from the prompt level), they might appear to be out of order in the history.

 

In addition to using the Get-History command, you can navigate within the session history by using the up-arrow and down-arrow keys. For more information about the session history, type "get-help about_history".

 

When specifying multiple values for a parameter, use commas to separate the values. For example, "<parameter-name> <value1>, <value2>".

 

You can also refer to Get-History by its built-in aliases, "h", "history" and "ghy". For more information, see About_Alias.

 

EXAMPLE 1

 

 

This command gets the 32 most recently submitted commands. The default display shows each command and its ID, which indicates the order of execution.

 

EXAMPLE 2

 

 

This command gets entries from the command history that include the word, "service". The first command gets the 32 most recent entries in the session history. The pipeline operator (|) passes the results to the Where-Objectcmdlet, which selects only the commands that include "service".

 

EXAMPLE 3

 

  

This command gets the 5 most recent history entries ending with entry 7. The pipeline operator (|) passes the result to the Export-Csvcmdlet, which formats the history as comma-separated text and saves it in the History.csv file. The file includes the data that is displayed when you format the history as a list, including the status and start and end times of the command.

 

EXAMPLE 4

 

 

This command gets the last (most recently entered) command in the command history. It uses the Count parameter to display just one command. By default, Get-History displays the most recent commands. This command can be abbreviated to "h -c 1" and is equivalent to pressing the up-arrow key.

 

EXAMPLE 5

 

 

This command displays all of the commands saved in the session history. By default, $MaximumHistoryCount is 64, so this command can be abbreviated as "h -c 64".

 

EXAMPLE 6

 

 

This command displays all of the properties of entries in the session history. The pipeline operator (|) passes the result to the Format-Listcmdlet, which displays all of the properties of each history entry, including the ID, status, and start and end times of the command.

 

RELATED LINKS

Invoke-History

Add-History