Bash: history !136 0x0d7..bbc2: invalid timestamp

[Strykar]

Hi!
I use atuin + ble.sh + bash + powerline in a kitty terminal.

Recently I noticed that when I open a new tab (my kitty auto-starts via gnome on login with a few tabs and windows), each new tab I manually open after has a 3 appended to the prompt and on the top-right in a white background I see bash: history !136 0x0d7..bbc2: invalid timestamp.
See https://ibb.co/wZqX8Q8K

I added trap 'echo "running: $BASH_COMMAND"' DEBUG to the top of my .bashrc and I can see running: ble-edit/attach showing the same white background and invalid timestamp message (momentarily) on that line.

At first the 0xd threw me off and I assumed it was an atuin error, it is not.

At this point I am lost, how do I troubleshoot and fix this?

[akinomyoga]

The error message implies that your ~/.bash_history (or $HISTFILE if you set the custom location) contains a broken entry for the current HISTTIMEFORMAT. ble.sh analyzes the output of history (a built-in command of Bash that outputs the command history) on its startup. When Bash reports errors through history, ble.sh shows the messages from Bash in the top-right corner of the terminal.

You should be able to confirm the error message (even with ble.sh disabled) by running history:

$ history | grep invalid

The feature to show the error message on the top-right corner of the terminal is provided by ble.sh, but ble.sh only changes how the error message from Bash is presented to the user. The error exists regardless of ble.sh.

To solve the problem, you need to remove the affecting line (i.e., a line that looks like a timestamp line but does not match the format specified by HISTTIMEFORMAT) from your ~/.bash_history.

[Strykar]

Thank you, there were lines starting with #sha_hash that were causing the message on the top right to flash, its fixed now.
This is a cool feature of ble I wasn not aware of.

So ble.sh is telling me bash is reporting an error that it cannot read history at line 136 and prints the erroneous line?
Why does the error message only show for a few secs, leaving the white background only, the text disappears?

[akinomyoga]

So ble.sh is telling me bash is reporting an error that it cannot read history at line 136 and prints the erroneous line?

Yes.

edit: More precisely, !136 means the 136th history record (instead of "line 136"). 136th record would typically be around line 136*2=272 because each entry has two lines by default when HISTTIMEFORMAT is enabled, but the exact line number can vary when there are multiline commands or when HISTTIMEFORMAT was disabled at some point in the past.

Why does the error message only show for a few secs, leaving the white background only, the text disappears?

Because that's the design. ble.sh implements a feature called vbell (visible bell), which mimics the behavior of vbell_msg from GNU Screen, where the message disappears after a fixed time duration. ble.sh uses vbell to show the error messages from Bash, so the error message of the history is erased after a few seconds. If you want to change the time duration, you can configure bleopt vbell_duration in your ~/.blerc. If you want to change the background color after the text disappears, you can configure ble-face vbell_erase.

[akinomyoga]

So ble.sh is telling me bash is reporting an error that it cannot read history at line 136 and prints the erroneous line?

Yes.

In commit 5c088fe, I added the text "Please check your history file (/path/to/.bash_history)" to the error message of invalid timestamp (if the history file is found).

[akinomyoga]

I guess 3 in the prompt is a separate issue, but I'm not sure what it shows. It depends on your prompt settings. What is the result of the following commands?

$ ps1=${PS1@P} # I assume you use a recent version of Bash
$ declare -p PROMPT_COMMAND PS1 ps1

If it shows the exit status of the previous command ($?), one possibility is that the last command in your ~/.bashrc fails with the exit status 3. Or another possibility is that some of the commands in PROMPT_COMMAND fails with the exit status 3.

[Strykar]

The 3 in powershell is still there, is this a powershell issue?

$ bash --version
GNU bash, version 5.2.37(1)-release (x86_64-pc-linux-gnu)

$ ps1=${PS1@P}
$ declare -p PROMPT_COMMAND PS1 ps1
declare -a PROMPT_COMMAND=([0]=$'_powerline_status_wrapper _powerline_set_prompt\n' [1]="printf \"\\033]0;%s@%s:%s\\007\" \"\${USER}\" \"\${HOSTNAME%%.*}\" \"\${PWD/#\$HOME/\\~}\"" [3]="builtin declare -F _ksi_prompt_command > /dev/null 2> /dev/null && _ksi_prompt_command")
declare -- PS1=$'\\[\E[0;38;5;231;48;5;31;1m\\] strykar \\[\E[0;38;5;31;48;5;240;22m\\] \\[\E[0;38;5;252;48;5;240;1m\\]~ \\[\E[0;38;5;240;49;22m\\] \\[\E[0m\\]'
declare -- ps1=$'\001\E[0;38;5;231;48;5;31;1m\002 strykar \001\E[0;38;5;31;48;5;240;22m\002 \001\E[0;38;5;252;48;5;240;1m\002~ \001\E[0;38;5;240;49;22m\002 \001\E[0m\002'

I was thinking the same thing that the 3 is the exit status of something a new tab is loading, but I do not see the 3 in the 5 tabs that kitty opens via gnome.

[akinomyoga]

I tried to replicate the problem, but so far I cannot reproduce the problem. I set up powerline and tried it in Bash. Although the layout is different, it shows the exit status on the right prompt when it is not 0. I think the 3 you see in the first prompt is the exit status of something. What is the output when you put the following line at the very bottom of your ~/.bashrc?

# bottom of bashrc

declare -p PROMPT_COMMAND _ble_local_lastexit >/dev/tty

[Strykar]

declare -a PROMPT_COMMAND=([0]=$'_powerline_status_wrapper _powerline_set_prompt\n' [1]="printf \"\\033]0;%s@%s:%s\\007\" \"\${USER}\" \"\${HOSTNAME%%.*}\" \"\${PWD/#\$HOME/\\~}\"" [2]="ble/base/attach-from-PROMPT_COMMAND")
bash: declare: _ble_local_lastexit: not found

[akinomyoga]

Sorry for the delay. I tried these settings soon after you replied, but I couldn't reproduce the problem of exit status 3 even with these settings. I intended to try different setups to see if the problem could be reproduced in my environment, but I didn't have time. It would take more time to try different setups.