Recalling Commands

By default, IDL saves the last 500 commands entered in a recall buffer. These command lines can be viewed, edited, and re-entered. The Command History view to the right of the Console displays the command history, organized by day.

You can re-use and edit commands by recalling them on the Command Line. The up-arrow key ( ↑ ) on the keypad recalls the previous command you entered to IDL. Pressing it again recalls the previous line, moving backward through the command history list. The down-arrow key ( ↓ ) on the keypad moves forward through the command history.

Note
Using the HELP procedure with the RECALL_COMMANDS keyword displays the entire contents of the recall buffer in the IDL Console.

Command recall is always available in the IDL Workbench. The command recall feature is enabled for the tty-based command-line version of IDL by setting the IDL_EDIT_INPUT preference to true, which sets the system variable !EDIT_INPUT to a non-zero value (the default is 1). See !EDIT_INPUT (IDL Reference Guide) for details.

Changing the Number of Lines Saved

You can change the number of command lines saved in the recall buffer by setting the IDL_RBUF_SIZE preference equal to a number other than one (in the IDL Workbench, you can set this value via the General tab of the IDL Workbench Preferences dialog as well.)