If the history is empty (or if HISTSIZE is 1) running `fc -l' produces an error:
$ history -c $ fc -l bash: fc: history specification out of range I'm not sure this is necessary, since other instances of `first' and `last' being outside of the saved history range don't produce an error. Also the `history' command doesn't have this behavior: $ history -c $ history 1 history As a special case, `fc -l -0' usually prints itself but not in the empty history (or HISTSIZE=1) case.