{"id":451,"date":"2009-10-22T07:03:06","date_gmt":"2009-10-22T07:03:06","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/g33kinfo.com\/info\/index.php\/?p=451"},"modified":"2009-10-22T07:03:06","modified_gmt":"2009-10-22T07:03:06","slug":"custom-terminal-prompt-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/g33kinfo.com\/info\/custom-terminal-prompt-2\/","title":{"rendered":"Custom Terminal Prompt"},"content":{"rendered":"

For those who do not know what a terminal prompt is (bash shell prompt), it\u2019s the thing you see when you open up the terminal. The default looks like \u201cuser@host: directory $\u201d or in my case that would be \u201crw@kaper:~$\u201d. You can make it look like anything you want to. <\/p>\n

The file we are going to edit is balled .bashrc.<\/p>\n

Open it using your favorite editor.<\/p>\n

\n

gedit .bashrc<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Look for this line in the document that has opened:<\/p>\n

\n

# set a fancy prompt (non-color, overwrite the one in \/etc\/profile)
PS1=\u201dxxxxxx\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

note: it will not actually say xxx<\/em><\/p>\n

Everything that you will put in place of xxxxx will be displayed in your bash prompt.<\/p>\n

Let\u2019s say you set PS1=\u201dhello,  please enter a command\u201d, then \u201cplease enter a command\u201d will appear in your terminal instead of \u201cuser@host:directory$\u201d.<\/p>\n

You can use special signs that will output something useful like the date or the time.<\/p>\n

These are the ones you can use<\/p>\n