history -a

[Bruce Korb]

My history file isn't being updated as I am led to believe it ought to be.
Is there some shopt or other thingey that keeps the history unwritten?
I've googled the issue and the answer is supposed to be "history -a",
on occasion, but that isn't working:

$ ls -l $HISTFILE;history;history -a;ls -l $HISTFILE
-rw------- 1 bkorb bkorb 0 Aug  9 10:50 /vmem/bkorb/.hist/HF-m16394
    1  man bash
    2  ls -l $HISTFILE;history;history -a;ls -l $HISTFILE
-rw------- 1 bkorb bkorb 0 Aug  9 10:50 /vmem/bkorb/.hist/HF-m16394
$ bash --version;history -a;ls -l $HISTFILE
GNU bash, version 4.1.0(1)-release (x86_64-unknown-linux-gnu)
Copyright (C) 2009 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
License GPLv3+: GNU GPL version 3 or later <http://gnu.org/licenses/gpl.html>

This is free software; you are free to change and redistribute it.
There is NO WARRANTY, to the extent permitted by law.
-rw------- 1 bkorb bkorb 0 Aug  9 10:50 /vmem/bkorb/.hist/HF-m16394


What am I missing?
Thank you. - Bruce