My notorious $PS1 prompt

By using the $PROMPT_COMMAND variable, this script dynamically created the $PS1 prompt.

• Version v2.6.2 (updated 2025-03-10)

News

• [2025-03-10] Also updated the example screenshot;
• [2025-03-10] v2.6.2 w/ some changed colors. Looks a bit better now (imho);
• [2025-03-05] v2.6.1 w/ correct local everywhere; plus better listings
• [2025-03-03] Update to v2.5.2: new config variable $_CODE!
• [2025-03-01] Update to v2.4.0: new _TTY configuration;
• [2025-03-01] Update to v2.3.0: including ls output if $PWD changed (see $_LIST config);
• [2024-07-12] New v2.1.5. Both 'root' colors (UID+GID) have changed;

Screenshot

Installation

Copy this file to the /etc/profile.d/ directory. This should include it automatically when spawning a new shell etc. (via source or .).

Configuration

The configuration is located on top of the file (as simple variables, which will be enforced into your environments where you include this script).

Tip

If you want to test them, or just change the config during usage, you can easily change the variables in your console! Example given: _LIST=0 will temporarily disable the directory listings. After/with the next login the values will be the original ones, right as defined in the script/file.

Variable name	Type	Default	Description
$_CODE	Boolean	1	Instead of indicating errors (return values != 0) with an ✘, the real error code is being displayed.
$_TTY	Boolean	1	Includes the currently used tty in it's output
$_LIST	Boolean	1	When directory changes(!), you'll get to see it's contents.
$_TERMUX	Boolean	0	Will enforce some settings to fit better to the Termux Linux (for Android phones)
$_ANSI	Boolean	1	Here you could also disable all ANSI Escape Sequences (for colors and styles)
$_MULTI_LINE	Boolean	1	Looks better when using a two line prompt
$_SLASHES	Integer	4	The amount of directories to show in your current working directory.. see the getBase() section
$_REST_STRING	String	...	Also for the getBase() function: the cut off parts of your current working directory are replaced by this string
$_COUNT	Boolean	1	Will also show the amount of directories and regular files in the current working directory
$_HOSTNAME	Boolean	1	Also show your machine's hostname (if set, directly at the username)
$_USERNAME	Boolean	1	Would also include your username in the output (if set, directly at the hostname)
$_LOAD	Boolean	1	The load average (parsing the /proc/loadavg; if not readable or available, it'll be ignored)
$_DATE	Boolean	1	Depends on the both variables below [ $_DATE_FORMAT_ONE and $_DATE_FORMAT_TWO ]
$_DATE_FORMAT_ONE	String	%H:%M:%S	First date format; by default only the current time (the date in the $_DATE_FORMAT_TWO)
$_DATE_FORMAT_TWO	String	%j	Second date format; by default the number of current days in the year

The Boolean types are just Integer values with either 0 as false or 1 as true.

Details

It's also using ANSI Escape Sequences to colorize up the prompt (if you don't disable it via $_ANSI configuration variable).

getBase()

It also has a getBase() function to reduce the amount of slash / separators in the directory depth.. with a bit of intelligence. See also the configuration variables [ $_SLASHES, $_REST_STRING ];

Contact

Copyright and License

The Copyright is (c) Sebastian Kucharczyk, and it's licensed under the MIT (also known as 'X' or 'X11' license).