Command Line Recall (Korn Shell) - Last Command Not Blank

Question

I'm using emacs for command line recall, so I use the up and down arrow keys, which work fine.
However, I come from a Tru64 background, and when I go back through the commands, and then come forward again, I expect to be able to go past the last command entered and return to a blank command line, so if I don't want to choose anything from history I can enter a new command. What's happening for me on the Solaris box I am now working on is that going forward in history sticks on the last command entered, so I have to backspace it to enter anything new.
Any ideas on how I can change this behaviour?

Answer 1

Kevin,
Python has some great libraries to do what you are asking in the Unix enviornment:
To get enviornmental variables:
====================
import os
# store the env var audit_username in a variable; if it doesn't exist, use 'davew' as the default
username = os.getenv("audit_username",default='davew')
To run Unix commands:
====================
import commands
# run a command from unix (example from Python manual
commands.getstatusoutput('ls /bin/ls')
Dave Warner