Unix Subshell inheriting the command history from parent bash

Question

I have written a series of python tools that spawn new bash sessions. I am want those individual subshells to inherit the command history of the parent. I have tried:

shopt -s histappend
PROMPT_COMMAND="history -an;$PROMPT_COMMAND"

in the .bash_profile . But it didn't give me what I need. I have seen this done. My tool uses:

os.system('bash')

to spawn a subprocess.

Thoughts? better way?

Answer 1

Depending on your OS , .bash_profile may only be executed by login shells, while .bashrc is executed for non-login shells.

So try putting

shopt -s histappend
PROMPT_COMMAND="history -a; history -n"

in .bashrc instead of .bash_profile .

Answer 2

site.py sets os.environ at startup. This does not change unless you explicitly change os.environ. So, a call to os.system('/bin/bash') should have an environment that was the same as you got as python startup.

Check os.environ, right after startup, and if necessary make changes to os.environ. Directly.

python docs os