diff --git a/dmenu_path b/dmenu_path
old mode 100644
new mode 100755
index 338bac4..3f168aa
--- a/dmenu_path
+++ b/dmenu_path
@@ -1,4 +1,10 @@
 #!/bin/sh
+HISTORY="$1"
+
+if stest -v -qfrw "$HISTORY"; then
+	unset HISTORY
+fi
+
 cachedir=${XDG_CACHE_HOME:-"$HOME/.cache"}
 if [ -d "$cachedir" ]; then
 	cache=$cachedir/dmenu_run
@@ -7,7 +13,6 @@ else
 fi
 IFS=:
 if stest -dqr -n "$cache" $PATH; then
-	stest -flx $PATH | sort -u | tee "$cache"
-else
-	cat "$cache"
+	stest -flx $PATH | sort -u > "$cache"
 fi
+awk 'NR==FNR { sub("^[0-9]+\t","") } !x[$0]++' "$HISTORY" "$cache"
diff --git a/dmenu_run b/dmenu_run
index 834ede5..444aeb0 100755
--- a/dmenu_run
+++ b/dmenu_run
@@ -1,2 +1,43 @@
 #!/bin/sh
-dmenu_path | dmenu "$@" | ${SHELL:-"/bin/sh"} &
+
+historyfile="$DMENU_RUN_USE_HISTORY"
+
+if [ -n "$historyfile" ]; then
+	if [ "$historyfile" = "DEFAULT" ]; then
+		cachedir=${XDG_CACHE_HOME:-"$HOME/.cache"}
+		if [ -d "$cachedir" ]; then
+			historyfile=$cachedir/dmenu_history
+		else
+			historyfile=$HOME/.dmenu_history # if no xdg dir, fall back to dotfile in ~
+		fi
+	fi
+fi
+
+dmenu_path $historyfile | dmenu "$@" \
+	| awk -v histfile=$historyfile '
+		BEGIN {
+			FS=OFS="\t"
+			if(!histfile)
+				exit
+			while ( (getline < histfile) > 0 ) {
+				count=$1
+				sub("^[0-9]+\t","")
+				fname=$0
+				history[fname]=count
+			}
+			close(histfile)
+		}
+
+		{
+			history[$0]++
+			print
+		}
+
+		END {
+			if(!histfile)
+				exit
+			for (f in history)
+				print history[f],f | "sort -t '\t' -k1rn >" histfile
+		}
+	' \
+	| while read cmd; do ${SHELL:-"/bin/sh"} -c "$cmd" & done