How to disable history on Python 3

Posted in Computing on 2020-04-22

Since Python 2 was deprecated at the beginning of 2020, you may have noticed that the Python 3 interpreter logs a history of all commands to .python_history. This has been enabled by default since Python 3.4 and is remarkably difficult to disable (bug #20866), and the official documentation is not much help.

The following method has been tested in Ubuntu and will prevent the python3 interpreter from creating or updating the .python_history file, but you should retain the command history during a session as normal in Python 2.

Method

Step 1: Enable .pythonrc

Your first problem is that the Python interpreter’s settings file is not enabled by default (bug #8919).

In your .bashrc or .bash_aliases file in your homedir, insert the following instruction:

export PYTHONSTARTUP=~/.pythonrc

Step 2: Restart terminal

If you have a terminal window open at this point, you will need to restart it for the new environment variables to take effect.

Step 3: Edit .pythonrc

Create a file called .pythonrc in your homedir containing the following:

import readline
readline.write_history_file = lambda *args: None

Credit to this goes to Waxrat at Unix & Linux Stack Exchange.

Step 4: Delete .python_history

Delete the .python_history file in your homedir.

Step 5: Check if successful

Load up python3, enter some commands, exit, and check if the .python_history file exists. If it does not, you have been successful.