Can I get the Ruby on Rails console to remember my command history, umm, better?

Question

I'm using the console in Ruby on Rails 3.1.1, and I'm finding its command history (up arrow) to be really flaky. I've run the commands p = Product.by_name 'Acme' and p.add_search_term('Snipe') several times today, across several console sessions.

Yet, when I reload the Ruby on Rails console, only the first one shows in my command history, not the second. Sometimes they are both there in the history after I reload the console. On top of that, I see commands in my history that are from several days ago after pressing up arrow only a few times. Is there some sort of configuration that I need to change or is this a bug?

• Ruby on Rails 3.1.1`
• Ruby 1.9.2p290`
• Ubuntu 11.10`

Answer 1

From How To – Persist Rails or IRB Console Command History After Exit.

Create, or edit your ~/.irbrc file to include:

require 'irb/ext/save-history'
IRB.conf[:SAVE_HISTORY] = 200
IRB.conf[:HISTORY_FILE] = "#{ENV['HOME']}/.irb-history"