Handling the system prompt

Syntax

• export PS1=“something” # displayes when bash awaits a command to be typed in
• export PS2=“anotherthing” # dsplayed when statement extends to more lines
• export PS3=“question prompt for select statement” # seldomly used prompt for select. First set PS3 to your needs, then call select. See help select
• export PS4=“mostly useful for debugging; line number and so on” # used for debugging bash scripts.

Parameters

Escape | Details –– | –– \a | A bell character. \d | The date, in “Weekday Month Date” format (e.g., “Tue May 26”). \D{FORMAT} | The FORMAT is passed to strftime'(3) and the result is inserted into the prompt string; an empty FORMAT results in a locale-specific time representation. The braces are required. | \e | An escape character. \033 works of course too. | \h | The hostname, up to the first.’. (i.e. no domain part) \H | The hostname eventually with domain part \j | The number of jobs currently managed by the shell. \l | The basename of the shell’s terminal device name. \n | A newline. \r | A carriage return. \s | The name of the shell, the basename of `$0’ (the portion following the final slash). \t | The time, in 24-hour HH:MM:SS format. \T | The time, in 12-hour HH:MM:SS format. @ | The time, in 12-hour am/pm format. \A | The time, in 24-hour HH:MM format. \u | The username of the current user. \v | The version of Bash (e.g., 2.00) \V | The release of Bash, version + patchlevel (e.g., 2.00.0) \w | The current working directory, with $HOME abbreviated with a tilde (uses the $PROMPT_DIRTRIM variable). \W | The basename of $PWD, with $HOME abbreviated with a tilde. ! | The history number of this command. # | The command number of this command. $ | If the effective uid is 0, #, otherwise $. \NNN | The character whose ASCII code is the octal value NNN. \ | A backslash. \[ | Begin a sequence of non-printing characters. This could be used to embed a terminal control sequence into the prompt. \] | End a sequence of non-printing characters.