Is there a way of outputting a datestamp to shell stderr at the _beginning_ of the execution of a command, that won't wipe out $_?
I use $_ quite a bit for the last argument to the previous command, interactively. And I'd like to datestamp all my commands. Datestamping after with $PS1 is easy, but datestamping before is a little harder.
I've tried using:
function preexec { if tty -s; then echo "$(tput smso)cmd started $(date +%Y\ %a\ %b\ %d\ %r)$(tput rmso)"; fi; }
trap preexec DEBUG
...but as you might suspect, I'm finding that $_ is always "preexec" with this enabled.
Any suggestions?
Thanks!