I always want to customize the bash prompt, to add some space between commands and to colorize the prompt to more easily recognize where I am and who I am. However, since I don’t do this often enough to remember how to do it, and I’m always reluctant to take the time to look it up, I mostly get by with the default bash prompts.
Now, to remedy that, I will finally take some notes on my preferred prompt configuration.
Well, in the end, I used .bashrc generator: create your .bashrc PS1 with a drag and drop interface and Easy Bash Prompt Generator to generate the prompt. That did make it much easier than previous experiences. However, my prompt code is totally bloated by tput sgr0 calls and much more. Nevertheless, it’s functional, and I’ll use it for now.
Here is the code that I’ll use to ~/.bashrc for Linux servers:
export PS1="\n\[$(tput sgr0)\]\[\033[38;5;3m\]\u\[$(tput sgr0)\]\[\033[38;5;15m\]@\[$(tput sgr0)\]\[\033[38;5;3m\]\H\[$(tput sgr0)\]\[\033[38;5;15m\] [\[$(tput sgr0)\]\[\033[38;5;5m\]short-name\[$(tput sgr0)\]\[\033[38;5;15m\]]\n\[$(tput bold)\]\[$(tput sgr0)\]\[\033[38;5;2m\]\w\[$(tput sgr0)\]\[$(tput sgr0)\]\[\033[38;5;15m\]\[$(tput bold)\]\[$(tput sgr0)\]\[\033[38;5;4m\]\[$(tput sgr0)\]\[\033[38;5;15m\]\n\\$ \[$(tput sgr0)\]"
For more details on customizing the prompt, which I didn’t have to use all that much this time, see also:
- Bash/Prompt customization - ArchWiki
-
[How to Customize your Bash Prompt on a Linux VPS DigitalOcean](https://www.digitalocean.com/community/tutorials/how-to-customize-your-bash-prompt-on-a-linux-vps) - How to: Change / Setup bash custom prompt (PS1)
And, for more details about the tput command, which was new to me this time, see also:
Also about tput, when I | to an ssh session, I get one of these errors for each tput call in my PS1 prompt:
tput: No value for $TERM and no -T specified
I’m not sure what that means yet.
Someday, also consider the fish shell.
A colorizing wizard with cleaner output: Bash $PS1 Generator 2.0