diff -urpN busybox-1.12.1.orig/libbb/lineedit.c busybox-1.12.1/libbb/lineedit.c
--- busybox-1.12.1.orig/libbb/lineedit.c	2008-09-28 20:04:20.000000000 +0200
+++ busybox-1.12.1/libbb/lineedit.c	2008-10-31 19:01:43.000000000 +0100
@@ -1415,7 +1415,8 @@ int FAST_FUNC read_line_input(const char
 	if ((state->flags & SAVE_HISTORY) && state->hist_file)
 		load_history(state->hist_file);
 #endif
-	state->cur_history = state->cnt_history;
+	if (state->flags)
+		state->cur_history = state->cnt_history;
 
 	/* prepare before init handlers */
 	cmdedit_y = 0;  /* quasireal y, not true if line > xt*yt */