Contributed by Zak Brown

Often the command you need is in your history, how do you find it?

One simple method is to run the history command and pipe it through grep.

$ history | grep cat
110  cat /tmp/foo

You can then run the command by typing ! and the history line number:

$ !110
cat /tmp/foo

Another method is to use the built in history search feature. In this case you
type !? and then the search term. This searches back into the history
for the last instance of the search term and executes it:

$ !?cat
cat /tmp/foo

However, this might be dangerous, what if the last instance of your search term
did something unexpected that would damage the system?

$ !?foo
cat /tmp/foo > /dev/hda

Ouch! A better solution is to search for the term and append it to your history
without executing. This time we close the search with ?:p

$ !?foo?:p

This will echo the command and place it as the last item in your history without executing. If it is in fact the command you wish to run, just hit the UP ARROW and ENTER

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原文链接: http://www.redhatmagazine.com/2008/01/03/tips-and-tricks-easy-and-safe-bash-history-searches/