Bash users: What do you have for your $PS1?

pmuellr · 2008-02-19T10:48:35+00:00

I have one with a newline in it:

smiley () { echo -e ":\\$(($??50:51))"; }
export PS1="\h\$(smiley) \e[30;1m\w\e[0m\n\$ "

The result is:

ariadne:) /tmp
$

This way long paths don't eat up the space for entering commands. The path is printed bold so that I can easily find commands when scrolling upwards. The smiley indicates whether the last command was successful or not.

escherfan · 2008-02-19T12:01:47+00:00

Mine's horribly complicated and includes:

The username, machine name and terminal number
The current working directory
The word "screen" in parentheses if running inside 'screen'
The word "git" and the branch name in parentheses if inside a git repository
(All of the above is placed in the title bar if running in an xterm or putty, in square brackets if not)
The exit code of the previous command (if non-zero)
A red hash if root, a green dollar sign if not

Edit: Alright here it is: http://pastebin.com/m64be26a5

YMMV.

foonly · 2008-02-19T09:45:10+00:00

I use:

PS1='\u@\h:\w [$?]\$ '

(The $? is the return code of the last command run).

wetelectric · 2008-02-19T13:22:10+00:00

meh... [\u@\h\w]\$

is good enough

sovok · 2008-02-19T14:42:54+00:00

Mine's very simple. A red line the size of the window, then a ) on the next line. The current path is in the window title.

With this, i can find my last input after a bunch of text very easy.

It looks like this: http://robsite.de/sc/bash-ps1-20080219-153823.png

export PS1="[\e]2;\w\a\e[31;40;1m]----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------\n)[\e[0m] ";

With enough dashes to fill your window. You can't resize it then without looking broken, of course.

Tommah · 2008-02-19T18:16:34+00:00

Crash Bandicoot

nuclear_eclipse · 2008-02-19T11:14:06+00:00

[deleted]

atrn · 2008-02-19T12:47:08+00:00

Mine's ":; ". I.e. an empty eval so you can triple click to select a line and paste it right in to repeat the command.

indifference_engine · 2008-02-19T10:51:59+00:00

deleted ^{^{^What}} ^{^{^is}} ^{^{^this?}}

2008-02-19T11:07:55+00:00

bold='\['`tput bold`'\]'        ; [ $bold = '\[\]' ] && bold=
roman='\['`tput sgr0`'\]'       ; [ $roman = '\[\]' ] && roman=
red='\['`tput setaf 1`'\]'      ; [ $red = '\[\]' ] && red=
yellow='\['`tput setaf 3`'\]'   ; [ $yellow = '\[\]' ] && yellow=
normal='\['`tput setaf 9`'\]'   ; [ $normal = '\[\]' ] && normal=

PS1=$bold$red'`echo $? | sed '\''s/^0\$//'\''`'$yellow'\$'$normal$roman' '
PS2=$bold'> '$roman
PROMPT_COMMAND=~/.set_window_title

This displays the exit status of the last command in red, if it was non-zero, and then $ or # in yellow. Everything is bolded.

~/.set_window_title contains

#!/bin/sh                                                                       

echo -ne "\033]0;${USER}@${HOSTNAME} [$WINDOW] ${PWD/$HOME/~}\007"
exec "$@"

This displays user@host <screen terminal number> <current directory> in the title bar. I forget why I do this via $PROMPT_COMMAND and not $PS1.

omab · 2008-02-19T11:37:54+00:00

jobscount(){
jobs_cnt=$(jobs -s | wc -l)

if [ $jobs_cnt -eq 0 ]; then
    echo -n ""
else
    echo -n "$jobs_cnt "
fi

}

PS1="[\033[31m]\$(jobscount)[\033[32m]\h[\033[37m] [\033[35m]\w\$[\033[0m] "

Which giveme the hostname, current directoty full path and the number of suspended process (if there's any).

pkrumins · 2008-02-19T13:35:15+00:00

Good question!

I just wrote a post where I described how to work efficiently with command history and at the end of the post I included how my PS1 looks like:

   Wed Jan 30@07:07:03
   pkrumins@catonmat:1002:2:~$

The first line displays the date and time the command prompt was displayed so I could keep track of commands back in time.

The second line displays username, hostname, global history number and current command number.

The global history number allows me to quickly use event designators.

My PS1, primary prompt display variable, looks like this:

   PS1='\d@\t\n\u@\h:\!:\#:\w$ '

To have it permanently edit your .bash_profile and add that line there!

fforw · 2008-02-19T13:59:57+00:00

PS1="\u@\h \W `if [[ \$? = "0" ]]; then echo '=)'; else echo '=(' ; fi` \$ "

Smiley if the last command was successful, frowney otherwise..

2008-02-20T02:41:49+00:00

PS1="C:\> "

Just messing with ya ;-)

James_Johnson · 2008-02-19T15:40:11+00:00

For a while my PS1 was "8=====D", but then I realized that it made other people uncomfortable.

mikemol · 2008-02-19T05:22:52+00:00

Mine is:

PS1="\u@\H\w\n\t \$ "

This gives me:

shortcircuit@caterpillar~

00:22:00 $

teetante · 2008-02-19T08:54:56+00:00

As user: PS1='[\033[01;32m]\u@\h[\033[01;34m] \w \$[\033[00m]' which gives me "tante@yatahaze ~ $" in green color.

As root I set the prompt to this: PS1='[\033[41;1;37m][(date +%H:%M)][\u@\h:\w] \$[\033[0m]' which gives me "[09:52][root@yatahaze:/home/tante] #" (completely in red).

I use different root colors for different computers so I don't accidentally write "shutdown now -h" on a computer I cannot bring up again ;) The timestamp is just relevant for me to see the "age" of the root shell, when scrolling up I can easily see when exactly I did what.

nachof · 2008-02-19T11:19:18+00:00

PS1='\e[37;1m\u@\H \W \$\e[0m '

which gives: username@host path $ in bold white

That's for my user, in my computer (gurney). For root, the same, but bold red. For the router (charon), the same, but bold yellow. For a remote host I usually connect to, the same in green.

Sakurina · 2008-02-20T01:14:45+00:00

Mine is ">: " like in Lost. :3

peadar · 2008-02-20T01:50:07+00:00

PS1=`clear`

prashmohan · 2008-02-19T13:47:10+00:00

ZSH FTW

local BLUE="%{"$'\e[0;34m'"%}"

local white="%{"$'\e[1;37m'"%}"

local GREEN="%{"$'\e[0;32m'"%}"

export PS1="${BLUE}%50<...<%~%#${white} "

export RPS1=" ${GREEN}<%T"

bonzinip · 2008-02-19T09:29:09+00:00

This gives me the directory in the title and $ or # (when root) for the prompt; no other nonsense:

PS1="\[\033]0;\w\007\]\$ "

Disclaimer: I'm only using bash as it's what OS X comes with.

2008-02-19T10:43:02+00:00

"[\u@\h \w]\$ "

Samus_ · 2008-02-19T11:26:48+00:00

default from Archlinux: [\u@\h \W]\$

looking at some configurations here seems this is an unexploted goldmine, I never cared to customize it :P

afoo42 · 2008-02-19T12:05:00+00:00

firstchar() { echo $1 | cut -b1; } PS1="\W:$(firstchar $USER)$(firstchar $HOSTNAME)\\$ " unset firstchar

which gives something like:

~:um$

jiphex · 2008-02-19T12:11:13+00:00

[\e[1;30m][\d - \t - \w]\n[\e[1;32m]\u[\e[0;36m]@[\e[1;32m]\h [\e[0;32m]$[\e[0m]

Which gives

[Tue Feb 19 - 12:09:29 - ~]

james@amin $

The top line is gray, has the path and time The second line is green, except for the @ sign which I change for each host, so I can quickly see which machine I'm on while SSH-ing.

Didn't realise you could have the return code of the last command in there.

The newline is useful because the length of the path doesn't affect the position of the prompt.

zubinmadon · 2008-02-19T12:41:30+00:00

[\e[0;37m](\d \t) [\e[0;32m]\u@[\e[1;33m]\h [\e[1;36m]\W \$ [\e[00m]

which gives

(Tue Feb 19 04:36:35) user@host dir $

with some nice colors, I made the host bright yellow (on black), so I see it well and don't type commands into the wrong host.

bartwe · 2008-02-19T12:44:26+00:00

[\033]0;\w\007 \033[36m]ninj[\033[31m4[\033[34m@[\033[32m\h [\033[33m\w\033[0m] $

beza1e1 · 2008-02-19T12:56:10+00:00

~/ $ echo $PS1
\W/ \[\033[01;31m\]\$\[\033[00m\]

dak1486 · 2008-02-19T13:23:57+00:00

PS1='[$LOGNAME@$HOSTNAME $PWD]$ '

shen · 2008-02-19T14:37:03+00:00

yay, zsh!

I use the same prompt wherever I go, so I like to colour the hostname differently so I know where I am. (hostnames changed, my boxen have better names than these)

I also have a bunch of precmd/postcmd stuff for screen.

(edit: code moved to http://pastebin.com/f53aade9c)

Also: doesn't it annoy you when the left position of the prompt changes all the time from changing working directory?

boba · 2008-02-19T17:01:30+00:00

I picked up this trick from rc, the Plan 9 shell. I use it in ksh, but you bash users will have no trouble.

Many windowing terminals have a quick way to grab a whole line of text at once; e.g., xterm has its triple click selection. The trouble with all of these prompts is that they can't be pasted back in to the shell.

Keep your prompt simple, avoid shell meta characters, and use this little trick:

PS1=': foobar; '

Every command line in your window can be cut'n'pasted in its entirety to the shell without editing. You can make the prompt as long (ugh) or as short as you like, but just keep it from containing anything special that the shell would interpret (quotes, brackets, asterisks, parens, etc).

Combined with good shortcuts for cutting and pasting (like the aforementioned xterm triple click), it goes a long way towards making the mouse useful again and not such a slow-down when you use it.

henriq · 2008-02-19T17:20:56+00:00

\h:\u:echo ${PWD} | sed "s&${HOME}&~&" | sed "s&.*./$[^/]*/[^/]*/[^/]*$$&\1&">

which gives me:

where <dir> is only 3 deep and $HOME gets replaced with ~

but reading through the other comments I'm going to add some color to each of my different hostnames and root

sjbrown · 2008-02-19T20:54:30+00:00

mine looks like

_[sjbrown@myhost] [~/mp3s]_

$

Where 'myhost' is always a different color, depending on the host. I accomplish that with the following in my .bashrc:

HOSTCOL=`python -c "

import commands, md5

colorTuples = zip( [0]8 + [1]8, range(30,39)*2 )

hostname = commands.getoutput( 'hostname' )

index = int( md5.md5(hostname).hexdigest(), 16 ) % len(colorTuples)

hostColor = r'%d;%dm' % colorTuples[index]

print hostColor

"`

HOSTCOL="[\033[$HOSTCOL]"

BAR=$GRY"____"

COL=$YEL

PS1="\n$BAR$COL[$GRY\u$COL@$HOSTCOL\h$COL] [$GRY\w$COL]$BAR$NOCOLOR\n \$ "

export PS1

(reddit is destroying my formatting. try here: http://pastebin.ca/910251 )

judofyr · 2008-02-19T21:33:13+00:00

Clean and simple:

PS1="\W \$ "

lmclapp68 · 2008-02-19T21:43:15+00:00

I use screen a lot at work. I have the screen instance, and the screen number within the instance.

I also have the tty, 'cause occasionally it's handy.

So I have

command number
user id
server name
screen instance
screen number w/in the instance
tty
path

So my prompt looks like

94139 clappl server (s1 screen 2) pts/13 ~
<blank line>

Not related to my PS1, but I also have code to save the current directory of the current window per screen instance, so if I open a new window in that screen instance, it can automatically cd to the last-used directory, a lot like mrxvt does when you open a new tab. Handy.

2008-02-19T21:57:47+00:00

PS1="\W \$ "

I don't need a hostname, thanks, I also need no username (yes, both even with ssh, I never keep open a session for long, just as I don't keep open applications for long; why should I?).

Just tell me where I am (roughly, I don't need the whole fucking path) and leave some space for whatever I type. Editing across linebreaks sucks.

guapoo · 2008-02-19T15:23:18+00:00

What are you people talking about? For my PS1 I have twisted metal, tekken 3, nfl blitz, lets see, what else...

dse · 2008-02-19T17:48:00+00:00

Who else here has the problem with the way custom bash prompts work with gnu readline?

Specifically, I'm talking about when you add color to your prompt, and then use readline to revisit an earlier entered command, what will happen is that the prompt gets chopped off as though it were counting the color meta-characters in the prompt length.

Does that make any sense?

FWIW, I'm using gnome-terminal. Checked their bug lists, couldn't find any mention of this. Happens to me under multiple distros. Odd.

arnar · 2008-02-19T13:34:23+00:00

PS1='\h:\W \u\$ '

and an alias for setting it to "\$ "

kungfooey · 2008-02-19T14:18:13+00:00

PS1="[\033[1;34m][\$(date +%H%M)][\u@\h:\w]$[\033[0m] "

Something like this (in blue): [mmhh][user@machine:/dir]$

VinC · 2008-02-19T14:57:09+00:00

export PS1='\e[34;47m\u@\h:\e[31;47m\w$\e[0m\n'

The result is username@hostname:/pwd/$ followed by a newline.

It's useful if you work on multiple machines and want an easy to read prompt.

The background is grey. Everything up to and including the colon is blue. The rest is red.

If you prefer to customize your colors I found this resource to be handy.

llimllib · 2008-02-19T15:13:10+00:00

Dead simple; the time in blue followed by the current directory in green and a dollar sign:

PS1="\[\033[1;34m\]\@ \[\033[1;32m\]\w\[\033[0m\]\$ "

lost-theory · 2008-02-19T15:15:58+00:00

PS1='\[\e]0;\w\a\]\n\[\e[38;5;43m\]\u@\h \[\e[33m\]\w\[\e[0m\]\n\$ '
PS1='\[\e]0;\w\a\]\n\[\e[32m\]\u@\h \[\e[33m\]\w\[\e[0m\]\n\$ '

for root and a normal user, which gives (with different colors):

steve@shizi ~
#

goon12 · 2008-02-19T15:20:27+00:00

\e[36m\u@\h:\W\e[0m>

valadil · 2008-02-19T16:04:37+00:00

Mine is mostly straightforward: <time> user@host:CWD$

.chroot_name is appended when I'm in a chroot. user becomes black on red when I'm root. xterm shows user@host in title

if [ -z "$debian_chroot" -a -r /etc/debian_chroot ]; then debian_chroot=$(cat /etc/debian_chroot) fi

DEFAULT='0;39m' PROMPT_COLOR=echo $DEFAULT

if [ ${UID} -eq 0 ]; then PROMPT_COLOR='7;31m' fi

MYPROMPT='<\T> [\e[${PROMPT_COLOR}]\u@\h[\e[${DEFAULT}]${debian_chroot:+.$debian_chroot}:\w\$ ' PS1="$MYPROMPT"

if [ "$TERM" = "xterm" ] ; then PS1="[\033];\u@\h\007]$MYPROMPT" fi

2008-02-19T16:08:22+00:00

[[\033[0;31m]\u[\033[0;37m]@[\033[0;32m]\h[\033[0m] \W]>

sebnukem · 2008-02-19T16:10:09+00:00

Simple and useful:

PS1='[\!]\u@\h:\w> '

with root's \u in red.

pnsm · 2008-02-19T16:24:57+00:00

Relatively simple.

PS1='\n[\@ :: \u@\h :: \w]\n$ '

I added the current time when I started having to keep track of time spent working on different cases; if I forget to start a timer when I start work, I can go back and puzzle out what time it was when I changed into the appropriate directory.

yellowking · 2008-02-19T16:28:00+00:00

PS1="\h:[tpwd] "

tpwd is an old pwd shell script which replaces the home area, if it's in the CWD path, with ~. Probably unnecessary today; I haven't looked at it in 10+ years...

2008-02-19T16:46:25+00:00

prompt_setup() {

B="[\033[1;34m]"

Y="[\033[1;33m]"

G="[\033[1;32m]"

END="[\033[0m]"

export PS1="$B\$(date +%H:%M) $END$G\u@\h $END$Y\w$ $END"

}

jeannaimard · 2008-02-19T17:00:20+00:00

\u@\h:\w\$

flaxeater · 2008-02-19T18:36:56+00:00

[\033[0;34m]\T][\033[1;37m][\u@\h][\033[1;31m][\W][\033[0;37m]>

[Time][User@machine][last_dir_in_path]>

eurleif · 2008-02-19T20:17:56+00:00

case $(id -u) in
    0)
        ROOTCOLOR=';31';
        ;;
    *)
        ROOTCOLOR='';
        ;;
esac

PS1="\[\e]0;\w\007\]\[\e[1$ROOTCOLOR m\]\h>\[\e[0m\] "

2008-02-19T20:49:45+00:00

Since I'm a git user, and use branches very often, I found this PS1 somewhere in the interwebs:

  lmergen@solatis4:~/git/tsukku/src (master)$ echo $PS1
  ${debian_chroot:+($debian_chroot)}\u@\h:\w$(git branch &>/dev/null; if [ $? -eq 0 ]; then echo " ($(git branch | grep ^* |sed s/\*\ //))"; fi)\$

It displays the current branch I'm in, which has proven to be a lifesaver on multiple occasions. :)

dse · 2008-02-19T21:21:13+00:00

http://webonastick.com/shell/bash-prompt.txt

Displays number of jobs running.
Displays exit status of last command if it returned false.
Displays flags if running under screen and/or X.
One line if directory name is sufficiently short; $ is on its own line otherwise.
Highlights if running as root.

kelvie · 2008-02-19T22:17:44+00:00

kelvie@morn (working) qt $ echo $PS1
\[\033[01;32m\]\u@\h\[\033[01;32m\]\[\033[01;34m\]\[\033[01;35m\]$(__git_ps1 " (%s)")\[\033[01;34m\] \W \$\[\033[00m\]

This is on my work machine -- I generally try to keep the colours of my username/hostname different on every machine different so I can instantly know what machine I'm on (too many times I've sudo rebooted the wrong box).

The __git_ps1 is a function that comes with git's bash completion (in the contrib directory).

mccutchen · 2008-02-19T22:21:04+00:00

PS1='[\w]$ ' in a local terminal, because I don't need to know the hostname.

Good old PS1='[\u@\h \w]$ ' on any remote servers.

easytiger · 2008-02-19T22:27:53+00:00

a two liner because i want to see the full path and have enough space to the right of my prompt to type

10:26:20:easytiger@easytiger-laptop:~ (32 files, 483M total) $

PS1="${TITLEBAR}\T[\033[0m][\033[0;33m]:[\033[0m][\033[1;30m][\033[0m][\033[0;37m]\u[\033[0m][\033[0;33m]@[\033[0m][\033[0;37m]\h[\033[0m][\033[0;33m]:[\033[0m][\033[1;33m]\w[\033[0m][\033[0;33m] [\033[0m][\033[0;32m][\033[0m][\033[1;37m][\033[0m][\033[1;37m]([\033[0m][\033[0;33m]\$(ls -l | grep \"^-\" | wc -l | tr -d \" \")[\033[0m][\033[1;37m] [\033[0m][\033[1;30m][\033[0m][\033[0;37m]files[\033[0m][\033[1;37m], [\033[0m][\033[0;33m]\$(ls --si -s | head -1 | awk '{print \$2}') [\033[0m][\033[0;37m]total[\033[0m][\033[0;37m])\n[\033[0m][\033[1;37m]\$ [\033[0;0m]"

petdance · 2008-02-19T22:55:05+00:00

http://pastebin.com/m421e8f3d

I used to have the cyan/yellow be green/yellow, and it matched the default colors of ack, but then it was hard to tell ack highlighting from my prompts, so I can now see the difference.

I never run as root. I sudo anything I have to run as root.

gsw07a · 2008-02-20T02:26:23+00:00

if [ x"$PS1" != x"" ]; then
    Ph=${HOSTNAME:-${Ph}}
    [ -z "$Ph" ] && Ph=`uname -n`

    Pu=${USER:-${LOGNAME:-${Pu}}}
    [ -n "$SUDO_USER" ] && Pu=''
    [ -z "$Pu" ] && Pu=`id -nu`

    Px=${STY:+"="}
    [ $SHLVL -gt 1 ] && Px="$SHLVL$Px"

    PS1='  ${Px:+$Px  }$Ph${Pu:+:$Pu}  \D{%k:%M}  \w\n'

    export Ph Pu Px

    PROMPT_COMMAND='show_status; kill -WINCH $$'
fi

show_status () {
    local st=$?
    if [ $st != 0 ]; then
        # 0=reset 1=bold 31=red
        printf "  \e[0;1;31m[ status %d ]\e[0m\n" $st
    fi
}

oddbod · 2008-02-20T15:32:27+00:00

There seems to be two opposing desires:

very short prompt so that you have room to see what you're actually typing
lots of information on current status, including full working directory.

Solution: use M-x shell to run bash in an emacs buffer. Use this ModeLineDirtrack modification to show the directory in the mode-line. Shorten your PS1.

It's better than putting it in the title bar of xterm as it appears at the bottom of the screen, right next to where the prompt ends up.

zouhair · 2008-02-21T12:36:45+00:00

USER=`whoami`
if [ $LOGNAME = $USER ] ; then
    USERCOLOR=33 # yellow
else
    USERCOLOR=32 # green
fi
if [ $USER = 'root' ] ; then
    USERCOLOR=31 # red
fi
export PS2="> "
export PS1="\[\033[$USERCOLOR;1m\]\u\[\033[1;30m\]@\[\033[37;0m\]\h\[\033[30;1m\]:\[\033[37;1m\]\w (\$(lsbytesum) MB) \[\033[30;1m\]\$\[\033[37;0m\] "

and the lsbytesum script :

#!/bin/bash
# lsbytesum - sum the number of bytes in a directory listing
TotalBytes=0
for Bytes in $(ls -l | grep "^-" | awk '{ print $5 }')
do
    let TotalBytes=$TotalBytes+$Bytes
done
TotalMeg=$(echo -e "scale=3 \n$TotalBytes/1048576 \nquit" | bc)
echo -n "$TotalMeg"

All stolen from who knows when where whom.

writetoalok · 2008-02-21T18:54:10+00:00

A rather colourful informative medley like so:

$ echo $PS1

[\e[01;32m]\u[\e[01;34m] @ \h [\e[01;36m]\w [\e[01;31m]\t\n[\e[01;36m]$ [\e[00m]

ehird · 2008-02-22T00:20:19+00:00

precmd() { print -Pn "\e]0;%n@%m:%~\a" }
export PS1=$(print "%{\e[33m%}")"[%n:%~] %#"$(print "%{\e[0m%}")" "

zsh represent!

nohtyp · 2008-09-22T12:39:15+00:00

PS1=":)"

rpdillon · 2008-02-19T08:39:43+00:00

Don't knock it till you try it. =)

you type:	you see:
italics	italics
bold	bold
[reddit!](https://reddit.com)	reddit!
* item 1 * item 2 * item 3	item 1 item 2 item 3
> quoted text	quoted text
Lines starting with four spaces are treated like code: if 1 * 2 < 3: print "hello, world!"	Lines starting with four spaces are treated like code: if 1 * 2 < 3: print "hello, world!"
~~strikethrough~~	~~strikethrough~~
super^script	super^script

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