Unable to change the CMD command history buffer size

[alexolog]

Windows Terminal version

1.13.11431.0

Windows build number

10.0.19043.1645

Other Software

No response

Steps to reproduce

When running CMD inside WT, there seems to be no way to change the history buffer size like I can do when running CMD natively, it is stuck at 50, which is not enough.

This CMD option is not exposed via the settings:

Expected Behavior

Able to change the command history buffer size.

Actual Behavior

Unable to change the command history buffer size.

[237dmitry]

Version: 1.14.1452.0

[alexolog]

Version: 1.14.1452.0

This is the screen scrollback buffer, not the command history.

The CMD counterpart is:

Yes, the description is confusing.

[237dmitry]

The CMD counterpart is

I think this is a problem of cmd.exe, Windows Terminal is just host for shells and console applications.

[alexolog]

I think this is a problem of cmd.exe, Windows Terminal is just host for shells and console applications.

How exactly is this a problem with CMD? CMD exposes both options (command history and screen history), WT only exposes one (screen history).

[alexolog]

I can have a history of more than 50 last entered commands in CMD.

For example, hitting F7:

When CMD runs under WT, only 50 entries are available and I cannot find a way to increase the limit because WT does not expose this setting.

[237dmitry]

I can have a history of more than 50 last entered commands in CMD.

Now I understand, I completely forgot about this function. Yes it shows only 50 history items in WT then doskey /history shows full list.

[lhecker]

This would be a great idea for a potential user extension for Windows Terminal. But as far as I know there currently aren't any plans to offer shell-specific settings within the settings UI of Windows Terminal ourselves - it wouldn't align with the fundamental idea that Windows Terminal is just a "terminal" and shells need to provide their configurability in some other way.

In case of cmd.exe you can achieve your goal in two ways. As cmd /? notes:

If /D was NOT specified on the command line, then when CMD.EXE starts, it
looks for the following REG_SZ/REG_EXPAND_SZ registry variables, and if
either or both are present, they are executed first.

    HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Command Processor\AutoRun

        and/or

    HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Command Processor\AutoRun

Into the AutoRun value you can then write for instance doskey /listsize=100.

Alternatively, and maybe the safer option, you could modify your cmd profile to have a command line like this:

%SystemRoot%\System32\cmd.exe /K doskey /listsize=100

[DHowett]

Unfortunately, this is not a shell setting. This is the murky gray area between the console and the shell.

In our case, it is the console host that stores command history and maintains the buffers. We are tracking making this configurable or infinite at /dup #2558 :)

[ghost]

Hi! We've identified this issue as a duplicate of another one that already exists on this Issue Tracker. This specific instance is being closed in favor of tracking the concern over on the referenced thread. Thanks for your report!

[alexolog]

We are tracking making this configurable or infinite at /dup #2558 :)

It's almost 3 years of tracking.

[DHowett]

That's true. Most folks who use Terminal moved on to newer shells that are receiving maintenance--which also generally maintain their own history data--rather than cmd, so it has not been prioritized very highly.

[alexolog]

That's quite the understatement.

Unfortunately, doskey /listsize does not seem to work on my machine, even in a plain CMD window.

[o-sdn-o]

@alexolog It is related to #16198.

[alexolog]

That one is closed.

[o-sdn-o]

There is a bug in the kernel and the fix for doskey /listsize is only available in Win11+.