13 comments to “Best bash prompt. Ever.”

1. 

   http://Hans says: January 7, 2009 at 11:25 am -#1

   Does your version of bash handle the wrapping ok when you do this? I used to have color on my input line and finally gave up. My current prompt is this:

   $(r=$?; [ 0 == $r ] || echo "\[\e[0;33m\]$r\[\e[0m\] ")\u@\h \[\e[0;32m\]\w\[\e[0m\]\n\$

   This gives me a little color, which makes finding previous prompts easy when scrolling up, and the return status is there in yellow if it’s not 0. But no color on the actual input line, and also the longest input line possible, and so I have minimal issues with different versions of bash and their myriad wrapping bugs.
2. 

   says: January 7, 2009 at 12:18 pm -#1

   Yeah, my bash does handle the wrapping. However, if yours does not, you can just put all that “export PS1” stuff on a single line.
3. 

   says: January 13, 2009 at 9:10 am -#1

   For users of git I recommend a slight modification. This adds the current git branch when you’re in a git controlled directory. It’s not as elegant (multiple echo’s) but more awesome.

   export PS1="\`if [ \$? = 0 ];
                 then
                     echo -en '$GREEN--( $LIGHT_CYAN\u$YELLOW@$LIGHT_CYAN\h$GREEN )--( $YELLOW\w$GREEN )--( $PURPLE'; __git_ps1 "%s"; echo -n '$GREEN )-- :)\n--\$$DEFAULT_COLOR ';
                 else
                     echo -en '$LIGHT_RED--( $LIGHT_CYAN\u$YELLOW@$LIGHT_CYAN\h$LIGHT_RED )--( $YELLOW\w$LIGHT_RED )--( $PURPLE'; __git_ps1 "%s"; echo -n '$LIGHT_RED )-- :         (\n--\$$DEFAULT_COLOR ';
                 fi; \`" 
   
   
4. 

   http://Jamie%20Smith says: January 30, 2009 at 8:18 am -#1

   I would like to prompt your bash.
5. 

   http://Bonta-Kun says: April 25, 2009 at 2:11 pm -#1

   It’s not so bad, especially the coloring by exit-code.

   However, you might want to do something like: user@host:cwd (that is, put the current directory next to the host). Then you can use the whole string as an ssh/scp target/source…

   Also, coloring the username differently depending on being root or not can really save you :)
6. 

   http://Kathryn says: August 3, 2009 at 12:09 pm -#1

   This is great, totally using it. :)
7. 

   http://Tobias says: October 12, 2009 at 4:16 pm -#1

   Saw it, used it (with modifications), love it. Bonta-kun’s suggestion is great.
8. 

   http://Ice says: February 13, 2010 at 10:50 am -#1

   Great tip, thanks. I love your blog!

   I’m using it with some modifications (root in red, full path, shows svn revision):

   export PS1='`if [ \\$? = 0 ];
       then
           echo -e "33[0m[$(test \u = root && echo 33[31mroot33[0m || echo \u)@\h $(pwd) $(svn info 2>&1 | grep Revision &> /dev/null && (echo -n "33[1;34m" ; echo -n $(svn info | grep Revision:) ; echo -n "33[0m"))]33[32m\$33[0m ";
       else
           echo -e "33[0m[$(test \u = root && echo 33[31mroot33[0m || echo \u)@\h $(pwd) $(svn info 2>&1 | grep Revision &> /dev/null && (echo -n "33[1;34m" ; echo -n $(svn info | grep Revision:) ; echo -n "33[0m"))]33[31m\$33[0m ";
       fi; `'
   
9. 

   http://William%20Dye%20(willdye) says: February 19, 2010 at 11:34 am -#1

   For what it’s worth, I tend to avoid using the ASCII escape codes directly, preferring code such as “blue=$(tput setaf 4 2) instead. According to http://mywiki.wooledge.org/BashFAQ/037 and http://bash-hackers.org/wiki/doku.php?id=scripting:terminalcodes the tput method is preferred, though I can’t think of an instance in which either method caused a serious problem for me.
10. 

    says: March 26, 2010 at 12:06 am -#1

    @willdye

    For the specific ANSI codes, there is no real technical reason. tput setaf/setab produce ANSI codes per definition (setaf – “set ANSI foreground”).

    It gets interesting for all other codes that are not ANSI specific or defined in ANSI but may be implemented differently in your terminal (maybe a better version of it, or similar). What tput improves is the code readability, even for ANSI color codes. Direct ESC sequences look crazy in the code, compared to a $(tput ….).
11. 

    http://Philippe says: October 13, 2010 at 7:14 am -#1

    This is both awesome and horrible

    It’s handsome because I too like to have a visual clue to point my old a deficient brain to a compile error

    It’s horrible because it combines the export and the test, rendering the code so obfuscated that any editor syntax parser will choke on it (let alone a human) and colorize it wrongly.

    I’d really like to find a workaround ; The catch is that the test must be done late, otherwise you might get return codes of another command, if not the test itself.
    I tried putting the test in a function, and then calling COMMAND_PROMPT=myfunction but I could not get it to work. Any help ?

    anyway, i like it. Thanks Dave.
12. 

    http://Philippe says: October 13, 2010 at 7:58 am -#1

    I mean, this *should* work. But it does’nt :(

    PS1=”$(if [ $? = 0 ] ; then echo “:)” ; else echo “:(“; fi) # “
13. 

    http://Philippe says: October 26, 2010 at 5:03 am -#1

    I think I finally figured it out :
    http://www.box.net/shared/kxauj9ezym

    Thank you very much for this smiley idea, I think it’s a great ergonomic improvement.