Save Entire Command History

Maintains a complete record of the command history (Matlab only maintains the last 20k worth ...

Description

'preserve_history.m' maintains a complete record of the command history (MATLAB only maintains the last 20k worth of commands, so old commands are lost).

To get it to run you need to create a copy of your 'history.m' file and rename it 'history_saved.m'. The path of the history file will be something like "C:\Documents and Settings\poi\Application
Data\MathWorks\MATLAB\R14SP3\"

There are paths you will need to change in 'preserve_history.m' depending on your installation directory and username on lines: 9,25,47.

Also attached are 'startup.m' and 'finish files.m' which call the preserve_history file and also restore MATLAB to the last working directory whenever it is started.

The attached files must all be copied to "...matlab_directory\toolbox\local\".

• MATLAB release: MATLAB 7.1.0 (R14SP3)

[Scott Freeman]

 

[Yair Altman]

Excellent & simple implementation fixing a long-standing Matlab annoyance. The preserve_history file could use extra help comment about the usage. Also, should use the built-in prefdir built-in function so that users won't need to modify the file. Lastly, the feature of restoring the last used folder should be placed in a separate submission - it is irrelevant in this one. All this said, this is still a great submission.

[James Blake]

It's a bit tricky to install---you need to modify preserve_history.m in several places. There should be a parameter at the top of the file to make it easier, unless you can automate it further. Adding finish.m and preserve_history.m to your path, rather than touching the matlab install files is important, since normal users can do this without disrupting any other usage. It could also do with some clearer help. All in all, it works well, though.

[Mason Freed]

I'd post code if I could, but to make the preserve_history.m file not require customization, and work for multiple Matlab installations, just change lines 13, 29, and 51 to these:

13: [fid, err] = fopen(fullfile(prefdir,'history_saved.m'), 'r');
29: [fid, err] = fopen(fullfile(prefdir,'history.m'), 'r');
51: [fid, err] = fopen(fullfile(prefdir,'history_saved.m'), 'r+');

[Nathan Thern]

 

[Eric]

I'm not sure why Matlab doesn't allow the command history size to be adjusted, but this is a must have.

I made a string variable "rootpath" (e.g. 'c:\users\poi\AppData\*etc*') and then used [rootpath,'history*.m'] on the three lines that need to be edited, I think this is an obvious change that I assume many people would use.

Thanks for the program. I was moving command histories from one computer to another; giving write permissions, and copying the old history to the new one plus history_save was a little difficult, but most competent users should be able to overcome this.

One word of caution: if there is an error in "history_preserved.m" then you'll have to crash matlab (from the task manager in Windows) to get it to restart because finish.m will keep returning an error and prevent the program from closing.

[Eric]

 

[mark95tt]

 

[Jie Zhang]

 

[Emile Demarteau]

Thanks for this great contribution! I was looking for this functionality, and it works great!

@Eric I got around the error problem in finish.m by placing the history_preserved command in a try cath block. So finish.m will look like:

setpref('StartupDirectory','LastWorkingDirectory',pwd)
try
    preserve_history;
catch EM
    h=msgbox(EM.message,sprintf('Error: %s',EM.identifier),'error');
    uiwait(h);
    return
end

Now it won't 'hang' your matlab but just display an error dialog before closing.

[Mr Smart]