Want to change the text, information displayed, and colors in your bash prompt?

One more example:

Step 1: The PS1 variable

Set the PS1 variable to control your prompt. Try entering this into your shell:

PS1="Go Away -> "

Common Special Characters

To add in dynamic information like the date or hostname, we can use a set of special characters:

\d - the current date \e - escape character \h - the hostname \n - a newline \t - current time 24-hour HH:MM:SS \T - 12-hour HH:MM:SS \@ - 12-hour HH:MM am/pm \u - username of current user \w - path to current working directory

For example, to display your username:

PS1="I am \u "

Colors!

Most shells come with a minimum of 8 standard color codes (yes they are very ugly 🤮)

Black: \e[30m Blue: \e[34m Cyan: \e[36m Green: \e[32m Magenta: \e[35m Red: \e[31m White: \e[37m Yellow: \e[33m

Black: \033[30m Blue: \033[34m Cyan: \033[36m Green: \033[32m Magenta: \033[35m Red: \033[31m White: \033[37m Yellow: \033[33m

We need to enclose our color codes using the following escape sequences:

\[ - start of non-printing sequence \] - end of non-printing sequence

To make our prompt yellow...