Terminal Keeps Restoring

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Level 1

22 points

Terminal Keeps Restoring

My Terminal app keeps starting with a recovery of old commands in the BASH history. It had a large amount of commands and terminal output that should not be seen (configuration of devices). I was able to clear most of the text by issuing "history -c" and after that the terminal has no text/history. BUT... After quitting Terminal and restarting the terminal sends a restored command

[Restored Jun 20, 2018, 2:44:12 PM]

Last login: Wed Jun 20 14:33:14 on ttys000

Restored session: Wed Jun 20 14:33:25 CDT 2018

Guys-MacBook-Air:~ guy$

and some of the BASH history returns. What is this "Restore"? How do I stop this "Restore"?

MacBook Air, OS X El Capitan (10.11.6), null

Posted on Jun 20, 2018 1:01 PM

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Answer 1

Top-ranking reply

BobHarris

Level 9

57,041 points

Jun 22, 2018 5:48 AM in response to Macaroni323

This most likely means you have a "Window Group"

Terminal -> Preferences -> Window Groups

You get a Window Group via

Terminal -> Window -> Save Windows as Group...

You will be asked if you want to "[X] Restore all commands" and "[X] Use window group when Terminal starts"

You can remove any saved Window Groups via

Terminal -> Preferences -> Window Groups -> select the group -> [-]

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Answer 2

BobHarris

Level 9

57,041 points

Jun 23, 2018 9:30 AM in response to Macaroni323

Either delete or move your ~/Library/Preferences/com.apple.Terminal.plist so that Terminal will create a new preferences file

First quit Terminal
Finder -> Go -> Go to folder -> ~/Library/Preferences # first character is Tilda
Either drag com.apple.Terminal.plist to your desktop, or drag it to the trash.
Restart Terminal

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Answer 3

BobHarris

Level 9

57,041 points

Jun 22, 2018 5:52 AM in response to Macaroni323

The other possibily is that you are quitting Terminal with a window that you did not logout of or close, so it is just restoring the window to the state it was in when you quit Terminal.

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Answer 4

Eric Root

Level 10

685,293 points

Jun 23, 2018 7:39 AM in response to Macaroni323

Open Terminal and in the menu bar at the top is the Shell menu. Click that and the reset options are there.

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Answer 5

roam

Level 6

13,637 points

Jun 21, 2018 8:14 PM in response to Macaroni323

I am not familiar with the restore you are seeing but you could try deleting .bash_history in your home folder.

rm .bash_history

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Answer 6

Macaroni323 Author

Level 1

22 points

Jun 22, 2018 2:22 PM in response to Eric Root

Eric,

Not sure how to go about Terminal/Shell/Reset or Hard Reset. I followed the instructions here:

How to 'reset' bash to factory settings - MacOS Sierra - Stack Overflow

This worked only upon the first start after the "killall Terminal". I checked the terminal and there was no history and then issued an "ifconfig" to test the terminal (which worked perfectly). I quit the terminal App and after that, the same strange "Restored" message comes up and my history is restored (along with the last "ifconfig").

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Answer 7

Macaroni323 Author

Level 1

22 points

Jun 22, 2018 2:27 PM in response to BobHarris

BobHarris,

I will have to check the preferences on Terminal (though I wouldn't have changed anything from default knowingly). I may have slept the computer (shut the cover) with the terminal window open but I don't think that ever was an issue previously (since my machine sleeps after a few minutes on battery).

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Answer 8

Macaroni323 Author

Level 1

22 points

Jun 22, 2018 2:32 PM in response to roam

Roam,

Tried deleting BASH history file first. No luck. Seems to have something corrupt in the file structure for Terminal and it is restoring information from a file that I'm not removing. Not a problem on a second user account just added.

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