Bash last command - skip identical commands in history

Question

By using the arrow keys one can fill the command line with the last called commands. However, Bash does call all the previous commands, not just unique commands.

$./a.out       //oldest command called
$ gcc main.c
$ gcc main.c
$ gcc main.c   //latest command called
$              //4 strokes required to call ./a.out, altough 2 would be sufficient

Is there a way to ignore past commands in the history list if they are identical and automatically call/fill in the next unique command in history?

Thank you!

Answer 1

Yes, there is. You can control how commands are saved in the history with the shell variable HISTCONTROL, all you have to do is put the line

HISTCONTROL=erasedups

in your .bashrc. (I prefer erasedups over ignoredups, as it places the last command I typed always on top of the history. This way I don't have to look when I want to repeat the last command I typed.)