Changing prompt in tcsh

guyafe · 11-15-2009, 02:49 AM

Hi,
I am trying to change the propmpt in tcsh in Redhat.
I did all the following:
In ~/.cshrc I added at the end of the file the new prompt.
Copied csh.cshrc and csh.login to ~/ and added the new prompt at the end of both of them.

I get the new prompt every time I open a terminal window, but the minute I am changing a directory, I get the old prompt again.
Can you tell me where else I should change the prompt?

Thanks
Guy Yafe

anomie · 11-15-2009, 01:29 PM

Which OS / version, exactly? ("Redhat" is not descriptive enough.)

First, check some tcsh prompt examples.

Next, read the tcsh(1) manpages for your OS / version, and confirm that ~/.cshrc is read at shell startup (as opposed to, say, ~/.tcshrc) -- and in what order.

guyafe · 11-18-2009, 01:59 AM

After printing /etc/issue
I got

Quote:

Red Hat Enterprise Linux ES release 4 (Nahant Update 2)

I couldn't find anything in the manual that could solve the problem.
I don't have ~/.tcshrc, only ~/.chrc. I tried changing the latter to .tcshrc, and also didn't work.

Guy

anomie · 11-18-2009, 05:12 PM

From the tcsh(1) manpages on a RHEL4 system:

Code:

       A login shell begins by  executing  commands  from  the  system  files
       /etc/csh.cshrc  and  /etc/csh.login.   It  then executes commands from
       files in the  user’s  home  directory:  first  ~/.tcshrc  (+)  or,  if
       ~/.tcshrc is not found, ~/.cshrc, then ~/.history (or the value of the
       histfile shell variable), then ~/.login, and  finally  ~/.cshdirs  (or
       the  value  of  the  dirsfile shell variable) (+).

If you're sure you have the file named correctly (it's misspelled in your last post), then post its contents here...

guyafe · 11-22-2009, 01:46 AM

Yes, there was a typo in my post, but the files are named correctly.
Here is its contents:

Code:

set path = (/usr/kerberos/bin /bin /usr/bin /usr/local/bin /usr/bin/X11 /usr/X11R6/bin /rtsw/workbench25/gnu/3.4.4-wrlinux-1.3/x86-linux2/bin/ ./)
# global enviroment file for csh/tcsh
source /auto/tools/etc/ENV.rtsw
# END
setenv EDITOR kedit
set prompt = "%/>"
set prompt2 = ">"

Guy

anomie · 11-24-2009, 04:17 PM

The first prompt assignment works OK for me:

Code:

> set prompt = "%/>"
/home/mrbig>

What if you source it in manually?

Code:

source .tcshrc

guyafe · 11-25-2009, 12:18 AM

Again, it loads the configurations, but as soon as I am changing the directory (Actually I don't have to change - just write the cdcommand), I get the old prompt back.

Code:

[guyy@guyy_l ~] tcsh> source .tcshrc
/auto/others/guyy>cd ./
[guyy@guyy_l ~] tcsh>

Guy

anomie · 11-25-2009, 01:11 PM

Code:

$ grep 'guyy' /etc/passwd

?

I can't explain the behavior you're seeing.

desperado · 12-01-2009, 01:33 AM

You must have a statement like this in ur .tcshrc file:

Code:

set prompt=<something>

add the following lines somewhere below it

Code:

alias myPrompt 'set prompt=<something>'
alias cd 'cd \!*; myPrompt'

I guess the prompt should start working properly now....

guyafe · 12-02-2009, 01:18 AM

Here is my .tcshrc file:

Code:

set path = (/usr/kerberos/bin /bin /usr/bin /usr/local/bin /usr/bin/X11 /usr/X11R6/bin /rtsw/workbench25/gnu/3.4.4-wrlinux-1.3/x86-linux2/bin/ ./)
# global enviroment file for csh/tcsh
source /auto/tools/etc/ENV.rtsw
# END
setenv EDITOR kedit
set prompt = "%/>"
set prompt2 = ">"

alias myPrompt 'set prompt="%/>"'
alias cd 'cd \!*; myPrompt'

Just getting the same results.

desperado · 12-02-2009, 11:15 PM

create a file named ".prompt" in your $HOME directory. Put in all the "set prompts" and related stuff in that file and source it in your .tcshrc

So your .prompt should have

Code:

set prompt = "%/>"
set prompt2 = ">"

alias myPrompt 'set prompt="%/>"'
alias cd 'cd \!*; myPrompt'

and .tcshrc should have

Code:

set path = (/usr/kerberos/bin /bin /usr/bin /usr/local/bin /usr/bin/X11 /usr/X11R6/bin /rtsw/workbench25/gnu/3.4.4-wrlinux-1.3/x86-linux2/bin/ ./)
# global enviroment file for csh/tcsh
source /auto/tools/etc/ENV.rtsw
# END
setenv EDITOR kedit
source-r ~/.prompt

hopefully it'll work now.

guyafe · 12-06-2009, 02:39 AM

Nope.
Again - getting the same behaviour.
I am starting to think that it is related to some strange user privileges, my sys-admin configured (He himself has no idea about how to solve this problem).
I have never seen this before, I didn't have this problem on any other platform - Ubuntu, Kubuntu, OpenSuse, and even Red Hat in another places.
Anyway, thanks a lot for all of your help.

DrLove73 · 12-06-2009, 12:04 PM

Is it possible that you have prompt config file somewhere in the PATH? Like did you backup one of those files to /etc folder for example? Maybe your prompt change gets overridden by rouge config file.

haltki · 12-15-2010, 02:58 AM

I had the same problem, and desperado's solution worked for me. In the .tcshrc, add this:

set prompt=<something>
alias cd 'cd \!*; set prompt=<something>'