Add Exclude A Command From The ZSH History File as a Unix TIL

README.md

@@ -10,7 +10,7 @@ pairing with smart people at Hashrocket.
 
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-_1216 TILs and counting..._
+_1217 TILs and counting..._
 
 ---
 
@@ -1157,6 +1157,7 @@ _1216 TILs and counting..._
 - [Do A Dry Run Of An rsync](unix/do-a-dry-run-of-an-rsync.md)
 - [Do Not Overwrite Existing Files](unix/do-not-overwrite-existing-files.md)
 - [Enable Multi-Select Of Results With fzf](unix/enable-multi-select-of-results-with-fzf.md)
+- [Exclude A Command From The ZSH History File](unix/exclude-a-command-from-the-zsh-history-file.md)
 - [Exclude A Directory With Find](unix/exclude-a-directory-with-find.md)
 - [Exclude Certain Files From An rsync Run](unix/exclude-certain-files-from-an-rsync-run.md)
 - [Figure Out The Week Of The Year From The Terminal](unix/figure-out-the-week-of-the-year-from-the-terminal.md)

unix/exclude-a-command-from-the-zsh-history-file.md

@@ -0,0 +1,37 @@
+# Exclude A Command From The ZSH History File
+
+The `zsh` shell can be configured to record the commands you run from the
+terminal in a history file. This is great for recalling and retrieving past
+commands that you want to run again.
+
+What about commands that I don't want written to a file on my machine? For
+instance, if I'm running a command that includes a password, secret key, or
+some other sensitive value, I don't want that saved in plaintext on my machine.
+
+`zsh` has an affordance for this with the `hist_ignore_space` option. With that
+option enabled, any command preceded by a space (`' '`) will be excluded from
+the history file.
+
+First, turn it on.
+
+```zsh
+$ setopt hist_ignore_space
+```
+
+Now, try a couple commands and see what shows up in the file.
+
+```zsh
+$ echo 'this command will be saved in history'
+this command will be saved in history
+
+$  echo 'this will be kept secret'
+this will be kept secret
+
+$ tail ~/.zsh_history
+: 1654378676:0;echo 'this command will be saved in history'
+: 1654378690:0;tail ~/.zsh_history
+```
+
+Notice how the second command with the prefixed space is excluded.
+
+[source](https://unix.stackexchange.com/a/6104/5916)