# iex: Previous Command (Readline issue?)

**URL:** <https://forum.elixirforum.com/t/iex-previous-command-readline-issue/71249>\
**Category:** Questions\
**Tags:** iex\
**Created:** [June 12, 2025, 8:52am UTC](https://forum.elixirforum.com/t/iex-previous-command-readline-issue/71249 "2025-06-12T08:52:52Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 2\
**Page:** 1

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![patrickbucher](https://forum.elixirforum.com/user_avatar/forum.elixirforum.com/patrickbucher/32/38451_2.png) [@patrickbucher](https://forum.elixirforum.com/u/patrickbucher)\
**Post date:** [June 12, 2025, 8:52am UTC](https://forum.elixirforum.com/t/iex-previous-command-readline-issue/71249/1 "2025-06-12T08:52:52Z")

</div>

I’m using Elixir on Arch Linux, and a recent update destroyed the capability of `iex` to retrieve earlier lines using the up arrow or the according readline command (Ctrl-P).

```elixir
$ iex --version
Erlang/OTP 28 [erts-16.0] [source] [64-bit] [smp:12:12] [ds:12:12:10] [async-threads:1] [jit:ns]

IEx 1.18.4 (compiled with Erlang/OTP 27)

```

Is this an Arch Linux specific issue, because I’m already running Erlang/OTP 28, but IEx was built using Erlang/OTP 27?

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![kevinschweikert](https://forum.elixirforum.com/user_avatar/forum.elixirforum.com/kevinschweikert/32/26866_2.png) [@kevinschweikert](https://forum.elixirforum.com/u/kevinschweikert)\
**Post date:** [June 12, 2025, 8:54am UTC](https://forum.elixirforum.com/t/iex-previous-command-readline-issue/71249/2 "2025-06-12T08:54:25Z")

</div>

It was an issue in Erlang/OTP 28 but it’s already fixed

[https://github.com/elixir-lang/elixir/issues/14521](https://github.com/elixir-lang/elixir/issues/14521)

[https://github.com/erlang/otp/issues/9863](https://github.com/erlang/otp/issues/9863)