How do I do it?

I want to make a prompt, among other things, that can tell if I'm on a local connection or connecting from a remote host.. First I was thinking about checking pts vs tty but that doesn't cut it. Maybe something about checking hosts in bashrc then setting a variable and the prompt. But how would I go about checking hosts like that?

Thanks,
Matt

Welcome to LQ.

If it is an ssh connection then you should have the variables:
SSH_CONNECTION
SSH_CLIENT

Awesone.. Thanks for the quick reply.. Looks like I can test if $SSH_CONNECTION exists first then test it the first and third words of $SSH_CONNECTION are the same and that will give me local connection

Thanks agian,
matt

\h or \H will print out the host name.

If I change PS1 by the command: export PS1="\h@\H\$" I get the prompt:
jschiwal @ matrix.jesnet$

My default PS1 is set to "[\u@\h \W]\$". The host entry tells me where I'm logged in to.

The bash shell uses different startup files for a log-in session.
/etc/profile, then ~/.bash_profile, then ~/bash_login then ~/.profile. When logging out, bash reads and executes the commands in the file ~/.bash_logout.

When the shell is not a login session, ~/.bashrc is executed instead. The .bashrc file probably contains a test for /etc/profile, and executes it if it exists. But you could change this behaviour if you wanted to.

This is a little bit different from what you asked, but might give you an Idea which startup file should change PS1.

If you type: info bash and then PS1, you can find a listing of all of the prompt codes.

I think there is also a BASH PROMPT HowTo around with advice on what you might want in your prompt.