A while back, we listed 8 Useful and Interesting Bash Prompts. That turned out to be one of our most popular articles, and still generates user response and feedback. This time we’ve found a few more gems, as well as some handy tips and tricks for having the coolest shell prompt on the proverbial block.
Using These Prompts
Some of the following prompts are one-liners, and can be pasted directly into your terminal for (temporary) use. To make them permanent, you’ll have to paste the code into your .bashrc or .bash_profile.
The larger, more complex prompts such as Twtty should be saved to their own script file (such as myprompt.sh), and you place a line like
source myprompt.sh |
in your .basrc file to “import” them.
Twtty Prompt
This is a two-line prompt that holds quite a bit of information including username, hostname, working directory, time, and command history number. Because of the technical and visual complexity, it’s best to place this prompt script in its own file, then source it from your .bashrc or .bash_profile as described above.
function prompt_command { TERMWIDTH=${COLUMNS} # Calculate the width of the prompt: hostnam=$(echo -n $HOSTNAME | sed -e "s/[\.].*//") # "whoami" and "pwd" include a trailing newline usernam=$(whoami) cur_tty=$(tty | sed -e "s/.*tty\(.*\)/\1/") newPWD="${PWD}" # Add all the accessories below ... let promptsize=$(echo -n "--(${usernam}@${hostnam}:${cur_tty})---(${PWD})--" \ | wc -c | tr -d " ") let fillsize=${TERMWIDTH}-${promptsize} fill="" while [ "$fillsize" -gt "0" ] do fill="${fill}-" let fillsize=${fillsize}-1 done if [ "$fillsize" -lt "0" ] then let cut=3-${fillsize} newPWD="...$(echo -n $PWD | sed -e "s/\(^.\{$cut\}\)\(.*\)/\2/")" fi } PROMPT_COMMAND=prompt_command function twtty { local GRAY="\[\033[1;30m\]" local LIGHT_GRAY="\[\033[0;37m\]" local WHITE="\[\033[1;37m\]" local NO_COLOUR="\[\033[0m\]" local LIGHT_BLUE="\[\033[1;34m\]" local YELLOW="\[\033[1;33m\]" case $TERM in xterm*) TITLEBAR='\[\033]0;\u@\h:\w\007\]' ;; *) TITLEBAR="" ;; esac PS1="$TITLEBAR\ $YELLOW-$LIGHT_BLUE-(\ $YELLOW\$usernam$LIGHT_BLUE@$YELLOW\$hostnam$LIGHT_BLUE:$WHITE\$cur_tty\ ${LIGHT_BLUE})-${YELLOW}-\${fill}${LIGHT_BLUE}-(\ $YELLOW\${newPWD}\ $LIGHT_BLUE)-$YELLOW-\ \n\ $YELLOW-$LIGHT_BLUE-(\ $YELLOW\$(date +%H%M)$LIGHT_BLUE:$YELLOW\$(date \"+%a,%d %b %y\")\ $LIGHT_BLUE:$WHITE\$$LIGHT_BLUE)-\ $YELLOW-\ $NO_COLOUR " PS2="$LIGHT_BLUE-$YELLOW-$YELLOW-$NO_COLOUR " } |
One important thing to note about this prompt is that the horizontal bar scales to fit the width of your terminal, and that the working directory line will truncate itself when it gets too large.
If you have any problems with the above code snippet, the plain text version can be downloaded here.
High-Performance Minimalist Prompt
All the complexities of a fancy prompt like Twtty do take up extra CPU cycles, and while it’s certainly not going to grind your system to a halt, it can add up. If you want something that packs a lot of info without slowing you down, I suggest this:
PS1="[\d | \T -> \w ...\$?]\n#" |
One interesting thing to note here is the use of the variable $? at the end. This signifies the exit status of the last command entered. 0 means all is well, any other number usually indicates an error.
Rob’s Prompt
This is one of the more popular prompts floating around the Internet. The code is small and simple, yet it gives many of the features found in the larger, more complex examples.
PS1="\[\033[0;33m\][\!]\`if [[ \$? = "0" ]]; then echo "\\[\\033[32m\\]"; else echo "\\[\\033[31m\\]"; fi\`[\u.\h: \`if [[ `pwd|wc -c|tr -d " "` > 18 ]]; then echo "\\W"; else echo "\\w"; fi\`]\$\[\033[0m\] "; echo -ne "\033]0;`hostname -s`:`pwd`\007" |
MegaFancyPrompt
The name is entirely deserved – this prompt is quite large and extremely fancy. It’s got color, titlebar control, user-awareness, proxy detection, screen detection, job count, and more. In short, just about every feature found in the other prompts we’ve mentioned can be found here, and quite a few others. If you want it ALL in your prompt, this is it.
Note: Not all features are visible at all times, so while it may not look like much in the screenshot, you can check out the full (documented, commented) script file here for details on how to get the visible parts you want.
COLOR_WHITE='\033[1;37m' COLOR_LIGHTGRAY='033[0;37m' COLOR_GRAY='\033[1;30m' COLOR_BLACK='\033[0;30m' COLOR_RED='\033[0;31m' COLOR_LIGHTRED='\033[1;31m' COLOR_GREEN='\033[0;32m' COLOR_LIGHTGREEN='\033[1;32m' COLOR_BROWN='\033[0;33m' COLOR_YELLOW='\033[1;33m' COLOR_BLUE='\033[0;34m' COLOR_LIGHTBLUE='\033[1;34m' COLOR_PURPLE='\033[0;35m' COLOR_PINK='\033[1;35m' COLOR_CYAN='\033[0;36m' COLOR_LIGHTCYAN='\033[1;36m' COLOR_DEFAULT='\033[0m' # Function to set prompt_command to. function promptcmd () { history -a local SSH_FLAG=0 local TTY=$(tty | awk -F/dev/ '{print $2}') if [[ ${TTY} ]]; then local SESS_SRC=$(who | grep "$TTY " | awk '{print $6 }') fi # Titlebar case ${TERM} in xterm* ) local TITLEBAR='\[\033]0;\u@\h: { \w } \007\]' ;; * ) local TITLEBAR='' ;; esac PS1="${TITLEBAR}" # Test for day change. if [ -z $DAY ] ; then export DAY=$(date +%A) else local today=$(date +%A) if [ "${DAY}" != "${today}" ]; then PS1="${PS1}\n\[${COLOR_GREEN}\]Day changed to $(date '+%A, %d %B %Y').\n" export DAY=$today fi fi # User if [ ${UID} -eq 0 ] ; then if [ "${USER}" == "${LOGNAME}" ]; then if [[ ${SUDO_USER} ]]; then PS1="${PS1}\[${COLOR_RED}\]\u" else PS1="${PS1}\[${COLOR_LIGHTRED}\]\u" fi else PS1="${PS1}\[${COLOR_YELLOW}\]\u" fi else if [ ${USER} == ${LOGNAME} ]; then PS1="${PS1}\[${COLOR_GREEN}\]\u" else PS1="${PS1}\[${COLOR_BROWN}\]\u" fi fi # HTTP Proxy var configured or not if [ -n "$http_proxy" ] ; then PS1="${PS1}\[${COLOR_GREEN}\]@" else PS1="${PS1}\[${COLOR_LIGHTRED}\]@" fi # Host if [[ ${SSH_CLIENT} ]] || [[ ${SSH2_CLIENT} ]]; then SSH_FLAG=1 fi if [ ${SSH_FLAG} -eq 1 ]; then PS1="${PS1}\[${COLOR_CYAN}\]\h " elif [[ -n ${SESS_SRC} ]]; then if [ "${SESS_SRC}" == "(:0.0)" ]; then PS1="${PS1}\[${COLOR_GREEN}\]\h " else local parent_process=`cat /proc/${PPID}/cmdline` if [[ "$parent_process" == "in.rlogind*" ]]; then PS1="${PS1}\[${COLOR_BROWN}\]\h " elif [[ "$parent_process" == "in.telnetd*" ]]; then PS1="${PS1}\[${COLOR_YELLOW}\]\h " else PS1="${PS1}\[${COLOR_LIGHTRED}\]\h " fi fi elif [[ "${SESS_SRC}" == "" ]]; then PS1="${PS1}\[${COLOR_GREEN}\]\h " else PS1="${PS1}\[${COLOR_RED}\]\h " fi # Detached Screen Sessions local DTCHSCRN=$(screen -ls | grep -c Detach ) if [ ${DTCHSCRN} -gt 2 ]; then PS1="${PS1}\[${COLOR_RED}\][scr:${DTCHSCRN}] " elif [ ${DTCHSCRN} -gt 0 ]; then PS1="${PS1}\[${COLOR_YELLOW}\][scr:${DTCHSCRN}] " fi # Backgrounded running jobs local BKGJBS=$(jobs -r | wc -l ) if [ ${BKGJBS} -gt 2 ]; then PS1="${PS1}\[${COLOR_RED}\][bg:${BKGJBS}]" elif [ ${BKGJBS} -gt 0 ]; then PS1="${PS1}\[${COLOR_YELLOW}\][bg:${BKGJBS}] " fi # Stopped Jobs local STPJBS=$(jobs -s | wc -l ) if [ ${STPJBS} -gt 2 ]; then PS1="${PS1}\[${COLOR_RED}\][stp:${STPJBS}]" elif [ ${STPJBS} -gt 0 ]; then PS1="${PS1}\[${COLOR_YELLOW}\][stp:${STPJBS}] " fi # Bracket { if [ ${UID} -eq 0 ]; then if [ "${USER}" == "${LOGNAME}" ]; then if [[ ${SUDO_USER} ]]; then PS1="${PS1}\[${COLOR_RED}\]" else PS1="${PS1}\[${COLOR_LIGHTRED}\]" fi else PS1="${PS1}\[${COLOR_YELLOW}\]" fi else if [ "${USER}" == "${LOGNAME}" ]; then PS1="${PS1}\[${COLOR_GREEN}\]" else PS1="${PS1}\[${COLOR_BROWN}\]" fi fi PS1="${PS1}{ " # Working directory if [ -w "${PWD}" ]; then PS1="${PS1}\[${COLOR_GREEN}\]$(prompt_workingdir)" else PS1="${PS1}\[${COLOR_RED}\]$(prompt_workingdir)" fi # Closing bracket } and $\# if [ ${UID} -eq 0 ]; then if [ "${USER}" == "${LOGNAME}" ]; then if [[ ${SUDO_USER} ]]; then PS1="${PS1}\[${COLOR_RED}\]" else PS1="${PS1}\[${COLOR_LIGHTRED}\]" fi else PS1="${PS1}\[${COLOR_YELLOW}\]" fi else if [ "${USER}" == "${LOGNAME}" ]; then PS1="${PS1}\[${COLOR_GREEN}\]" else PS1="${PS1}\[${COLOR_BROWN}\]" fi fi PS1="${PS1} }\$\[${COLOR_DEFAULT}\] " } # Trim working dir to 1/4 the screen width function prompt_workingdir () { local pwdmaxlen=$(($COLUMNS/4)) local trunc_symbol="..." if [[ $PWD == $HOME* ]]; then newPWD="~${PWD#$HOME}" else newPWD=${PWD} fi if [ ${#newPWD} -gt $pwdmaxlen ]; then local pwdoffset=$(( ${#newPWD} - $pwdmaxlen + 3 )) newPWD="${trunc_symbol}${newPWD:$pwdoffset:$pwdmaxlen}" fi echo $newPWD } # Determine what prompt to display: # 1. Display simple custom prompt for shell sessions started # by script. # 2. Display "bland" prompt for shell sessions within emacs or # xemacs. # 3 Display promptcmd for all other cases. function load_prompt () { # Get PIDs local parent_process=$(cat /proc/$PPID/cmdline | cut -d \. -f 1) local my_process=$(cat /proc/$$/cmdline | cut -d \. -f 1) if [[ $parent_process == script* ]]; then PROMPT_COMMAND="" PS1="\t - \# - \u@\H { \w }\$ " elif [[ $parent_process == emacs* || $parent_process == xemacs* ]]; then PROMPT_COMMAND="" PS1="\u@\h { \w }\$ " else export DAY=$(date +%A) PROMPT_COMMAND=promptcmd fi export PS1 PROMPT_COMMAND } load_prompt |
Bonus – Finding the Right Colors
As you may have noticed, most of these prompts use color, and the color is often represented in a coded form like ‘\033[1;30m’, which is quite difficult to read or remember. An easy way to see all your available colors, and preview what they’ll look like, is to simply paste the following snippet into your browser:
for i in `seq 1 7 ; seq 30 48 ; seq 90 107 ` ; do echo -e "\e[${i}mtest\e[0m$i" done |
Which will output each color code with its number.
Conclusion
There are, of course infinite variations that could be packed into your prompt. Nearly any kind of textual data can be added in, and bash’s developers have had decades to add in functionality. Some readers have even commented about running custom Python or Ruby scripts from within the prompt. Whatever you do, make it functional, and if it’s REALLY cool, drop us a link in the comments!
Receive the latest update in your inbox.
I use this, it’s quite small:
[33[01;3$( retVal=$? ; [[ $retVal =~ ^(0|130) ]] && echo -n 2m] || echo -n 1m]$retVal )u@h[33[00m]:[33[01;34m]w[33[00m]$
If there was an error (except CTRL+C) the code is shown first and the username@host-part turns red (green on success), the current directory is always blue.
Try this on a Debian based system:
for c in {0..255} ; do
echo -e “e[38;05;${c}m ${c} Bash Prompt Color Chart”
done…to see a huge range of colors!