Editing Linux 101 hacks (section)

=='''Hack 29. PS1 - Default Interaction Prompt'''==


The default interactive prompt on your Linux can be modified as shown below to something useful and informative. In the following example, the default PS1 was “\s-\v\$”, which displays the shell name and the version number. Let us change this default behavior to display the username, hostname and current working directory name as shown below.


-bash-3.2$ '''export PS1="\u@\h \w> "'''


ramesh@dev-db ~> cd /etc/mail


ramesh@dev-db /etc/mail>


<nowiki>[</nowiki>'''Note''': Prompt changed to "username@hostname current-dir>" format]


Following PS1 codes are used in this example:


o \u – Username


o \h – Hostname


# \w - Full pathname of current directory. Please note that when you are in the home directory, this will display only ~ as shown above 

Note that there is a space at the end in the value of PS1. Personally, I prefer a space at the end of the prompt for better readability.


Make this setting permanent by adding export PS1=”\u@\h \w> ” to either


.bash_profile (or) .bashrc as shown below.

ramesh@dev-db ~> vi ~/.bash_profile


ramesh@dev-db ~> vi ~/.bashrc


<nowiki>[</nowiki>'''Note''': Add export PS1="\u@\h \w> " to one of the above files]


Refer to the next chapter for several practical examples of PS1 usage in detail.