What does your shell prompt look like?

Well we have a thread for screen shots so waht about your shell prompt?

There are lots of examples on the net including ones that show load averages etc so I just wondered what other people used.

I'll start off with my default one:

rossy - Wed Nov 12 22:57:01
~> cd /usr/src/linux
rossy - Wed Nov 12 22:57:06
/usr/src/linux>

The prompt string is:
PS1="\[\033[0;31m\]\u - \d \t\n\w> \[\033[0m\]"

Please try and include any commands/scripts etc you used to get your prompt.

Mines simple and probably standard:

drew@trickykid:/etc$

The prompt string is:
PS1='\u@\h:\w\$ '

Here's my prompt string...
PS1="[\u@\h \w]--> "

shows up like this:
[blinky@Spork ~]-->

|--j@slackmagick bash 2.05b (1) Wed Nov 12 19:26:51
|--~ >>

PS1='\n|--\u@\h \s \v (\l) \d \t\n|--\w >> '

[[@bunny:17:54:17:root]]

But you dont get the full effect without the color, try it out:

PS1="\[\033[1;30m\]\[\033[0;32m\][\[\033[1;32m\][\[\033[1;35m\]\[\033[1;36m\]@\h
\[\033[1;37m\]:\[\033[1;35m\]\t\[\033[1;37m\]:\[\033[1;36m\]\W\[\033[1;32m\]]\[\
033[0;32m\]]\[\033[1;30m\]]\[\033[0;0m\]"

Make sure you get the line returns out.

This is my firewall:
[@m0rl0ck:22:57:15:root]+>

Some what the same but uses reverse video, heres the $PS1:

PS1="[\[\033[1;36m\]@\[\033[0;45m\]\h:\[\033[1;36m\]\t\[\033[0;44m\]\[\033[1;36m
\]:\W\[\033[0m\]]\[\033[1;31m\]+>\[\033[0m\]"


EDIT: HEY!! I just realized my clocks are either out of sync or it took me 5 hours 3 mins to compose this post

I use ctrl+Z alot, so:

0 [321-2]
[Wed Nov 12 22:02:47]
green_dragon37@grndrgn001 / >

PS1 = \j [\!-\#]\n[\d \t]\n\u@\h \W >

For regular users: (I have a rather colorful hostname, so I edited it somewhat for this post)

cerbere@s#|thead:~$
PS1='\u@\h:\w\$ '

For root:

root@s#|thead:~#
PS1='\[\033[1;31m\]\u@\h\[\033[1;33m\]:\w\[\033[0m\]\$ '

This changes the color of 'root@hostname' to bright red, and the color of the pwd to bright yellow. That way I'm less likely to do things as root that I really don't want to do.

Enjoy!
--- Cerbere

It depens on the way I've been logged into the system :-D

normal user: me@pts/1 foldername $

root user: root@pts/1 foldername $

and remotely, me@hal9000 foldername $

The title of the xterm / konsole will also display the tty, host, and full path name. (only the last folder is shown in the prompt)

#!/bin/bash

PS1='\u@\h:\w\$ '

if [ "$TERM" = "xterm" -o "$TERM" = "xrvt" -o "$TERM" = "$SCREEN" ]; then
  ## Only update the title in an xterm.
  PS1_TITLE='\[\e]2;\u@\H:pts/\l \w\a'
# PS1_TITLE='\[\e]2;\u@\H \w\a\e[32;1m\]>\[\e[0m\]'
else
  PS1_TITLE=''
fi


if [ -z "$SSH_CONNECTION" ]; then

  # local, don't display host, but tty device.

  PS1_TTY="`tty | sed -e 's/\/dev\///'`"

  if [ "`id -u`" = "0" ]; then
    # Red root prompt
    PS1_USER='\[\033[1;31m\]\u'
    PS1_AT='\[\033[0;31m\]@'
    PS1_HOST='\[\033[1;31m\]'
  else
    # Green user prompt
    PS1_USER='\[\033[1;32m\]\u'
    PS1_AT='\[\033[0;32m\]@'
    PS1_HOST='\[\033[1;32m\]'
  fi

  PS1_HOST="$PS1_HOST$PS1_TTY"
  unset -v PS1_TTY

else

  # SSH connection, different color and display host.

  if [ "`id -u`" = "0" ]; then
    # Red/gray root prompt
    PS1_USER='\[\033[1;31m\]\u'
    PS1_AT='\[\033[0;31m\]@'
  else
    # green/gray user prompt
    PS1_USER='\[\033[1;32m\]\u'
    PS1_AT='\[\033[0;32m\]@'
  fi
  PS1_HOST='\[\033[1;30m\]\h'
fi

PS1_PATH='\[\033[1;34m\]\W'  # show dir in blue
PS1_RESET='\[\033[0m\]'


# concatenate.

PS1="$PS1_TITLE$PS1_USER$PS1_AT$PS1_HOST$PS1_RESET $PS1_PATH \\$ $PS1_RESET"
unset -v PS1_TITLE PS1_USER PS1_AT PS1_HOST PS1_PATH PS1_RESET

#PS1='\033]2;\w\007\[\033[1;32m\]\u@\h \[\033[1;34m\]\W \$ \[\033[0m\]'


# Other magical prompts:

PS2='> '
PS4='\[\033[0;34m\]+\[\033[0m\] '

export PS1 PS2 PS4

Hey, interested noobs (like me)

Note, that PS1 (the control-string for your prompt) can be set at differing places for different users on your system. Here is what I could make out (without actual access to my system):

/etc/bashrc is used to set the prompt for the "true" consoles reached via <Alt><Crtl><Function key 1 through 6>

/root/bashrc is used to set the prompt for root with graphical login (under KDE)

/home/user/bashrc is used to set the prompt for user (your user-id here)

Please note, that some systems place a "." (without the "'s) in leading position of bashrc, thus generating .bashrc (dot-bashrc), which might be hidden in the file manager (activate "show hidden files") and to the ls-command (that's a small "L") so use the -a option (ls -a).

I do not know where PS2, PS3 ... PSN are set and what they are good for, exactly. Any takers?

@moderators (and gurus): checking and editing this post directly as necessary for errors and improvements is welcome.

PS2 is your secondary prompt, if you enter commands on multiple lines. for example, if statements, or while loops. (they require a 'counterpart'; a command that ends the statement)
PS4 is used if you enable "set -x", which shows all commands being executed.


from the bash manual you'll see what files are used. (just type "G" to skip to the end) files in /etc/ are usually global, and affect everyone using bash. files in your home directory overrule these global settings.

if you run bash from a login session (or bash -l), /etc/profile will be read, and from your home direcory: ~/.bash_profile, or ~/.profile.

In slackware, there is a /etc/profile.d/ directory where all *excutable scripts* are being executed by /etc/profile too. Some distributions don't have this, but you could add a few lines at the end of /etc/profile very easy:

# Append any additional sh scripts found in /etc/profile.d/:
for file in /etc/profile.d/*.sh ; do
  if [ -x $file ]; then
    source $file
  fi
done

...guess once, by bash prompt color script is located at /etc/profile.d/bash-prompt-color.sh this affects all users.

a script can be made executable with this command:
chmod +x <insert filename here>

For users: <user>@<host>$
and for root: <user>@<host>#

mine is simple :

[sohail@linux /usr/local]$ echo $PS1
\[\033[37;01m\][\u@\h \w]$ \[\033[00m\]
[sohail@linux /usr/local]$

[17:20:06] slight - slight>

Errr.... this is from memory, so no guarantees if it's wrong (which it probably is):

export PS1="\e[36;1m]\t\e[0m]\u - \w>"

slight

Cool stuff guys, but one quick question...
Mine is the standard pibby@localhost thing and I am wondering how I change the "localhost" part. For instance TrickyKid has drew@trickykid. Local host is so boring, I hope there is a way to change that.
Thanks in advance for any help you can offer

Well, you could either change your actual hostname, or just use some of these tricks posted here. I am not positive about Mandrake, but I know in Slack there is a HOSTNAME file in /etc that you can edit to change it from localhost. I actually used netconfig, but I think thats a Slack-specific script.