diff --git a/plugins/terminal/resources/jediterm-bash.in b/plugins/terminal/resources/jediterm-bash.in
index 4f619a73d60a..31defa7d2d35 100644
--- a/plugins/terminal/resources/jediterm-bash.in
+++ b/plugins/terminal/resources/jediterm-bash.in
@@ -70,12 +70,11 @@ function configureCommandHistory {
   local commandHistoryFile="$__INTELLIJ_COMMAND_HISTFILE__"
   if [ -n "$commandHistoryFile" ] && [ -z "`trap -p EXIT`" ]
   then
-    if [ ! -s "$commandHistoryFile" ] && [ -f "$HISTFILE" ]
+    trap "history -w \"$commandHistoryFile\"; export HISTFILE=\"$HISTFILE\"" EXIT
+    if [ -s "$commandHistoryFile" ]
     then
-      command cp "$HISTFILE" "$commandHistoryFile"
+      export HISTFILE="$commandHistoryFile"
     fi
-    trap "history -w \"$HISTFILE\"" EXIT
-    export HISTFILE="$commandHistoryFile"
   fi
 }
 configureCommandHistory