I’m looking for inspiration for a custom Bash prompt[1]. I’d love to see yours! 😊 If possible, include both the prompt’s PS1
, and a screenshot/example of what it looks like.
References
- Type: Documentation. Title: “Bash Reference Manual”. Publisher: Gnu Project. Edition: 5.2. Published: 2022-09-19. Accessed: 2025-03-21T02:46Z. URI: https://www.gnu.org/software/bash/manual/html_node/index.html.
- §6.9 “Controlling the Prompt”. URI: https://www.gnu.org/software/bash/manual/html_node/Controlling-the-Prompt.html.
Crossposts:
I’m mainly using zsh but I have a backup bash prompt that closely mirrors it. It shows the return value of the previous command if it’s non-zero and gives some information about the current git repository if there is one.
retval() { if [ $? -eq 0 ]; then printf "" else printf "\001\e[31m\002($?)\001\e[0m\002" fi } gitbranch() { if type git 2> /dev/null 1> /dev/null && git rev-parse 2> /dev/null 1> /dev/null ; then MODIFIED="" if [[ -n $(git status --short) ]]; then MODIFIED=" M" fi BRANCH=$(git rev-parse --abbrev-ref HEAD) SHORTREF=$(git rev-parse --short HEAD) printf "\001\e[31m\002%s\001\e[0m\002(%s)\001\e[31m\002%s\001\e[0m\002" $BRANCH $SHORTREF $MODIFIED else echo -n "" fi } export PROMPT_DIRTRIM=3 PS1='$(retval)[\001\e[1;95m\002\u\001\e[0m\002@\h : \w $(gitbranch)] \$ ' PS2='> '
My bash prompt is just me copying the prompt I have set on fish.
# Prompt green=$'\e[38;5;2m' bright_red=$'\e[38;5;9m' bright_green=$'\e[38;5;10m' reset=$'\e[0m' prompt_command() { local exit_status=$? if [[ $exit_status != 0 ]]; then exit_color=$bright_red exit_prompt=" [$exit_status]" else exit_color=$bright_green exit_prompt="" fi } PROMPT_COMMAND=prompt_command PS1='\[$green\]\w\[$exit_color\]$exit_prompt\n❯ \[$reset\]'
I have a small issue with this prompt though. Sometimes the ❯ ends up turning white for some reason.
Maybe you can find some inspiration here.
[username@host ~]$ >
C:\>
/s
HA, that’s so cursed. I love it.
Do you have anything to check whether the current directory is under
/media/
or/mnt/
so that you can change the drive letter according to a deterministic assignment?/s
Convert the PWD value to use backslashes, too, for extra cursedness.
c/FoundSatan
Mine’s really simple; I just make the path bold and yellow:
What I like to do is change the colour depending on the machine I ssh into, e.g. make the path red on my Raspberry Pi.
export PS1="\[\e[31m\][\[\e[m\]\[\e[38;5;172m\]\u\[\e[m\]@\[\e[38;5;153m\]\h\[\e[m\] \[\e[38;5;214m\]\W\[\e[m\]\[\e[31m\]]\[\e[m\]\\$ "
That’s a warcrime.
How so? What does this do?
Best I can tell is it’s a normal `username@hostname current_directory$ sorta prompt with some coloring: • Red for the square brackets • Orange (color 172) for the username • Light blue (color 153) for the hostname • Amber (color 214) for the current working directory
Other than being hard to read from the embedded coloring I’m not sure why this is a war crime.
I use Starship
Another starship user. Mostly want it to summarise useful stuff for folders pulled from git or whatever so it’s pretty plain rest of the time. I use the same on all my boxes
Starships looks very interesting! I’m going to check it out. Thanks!
Same. I guess, this is the Starship thread now. My config:
I adapted it from the Gruvbox Rainbow theme.
I can post my config, if anyone wants specifically that. (It does kind of assume a light background, though.)I like the timer and the error icon on a fail. I can’t recall how often I think: damn this is taking too long. I should’ve timed the command
PS1='\[\e[1m\][\[\e[92m\]\u\[\e[0m\]@\[\e[96;1;3m\]\h\[\e[0;1m\]]\[\e[0m\] \[\e[1m\][\[\e[38;5;226m\]\w\[\e[39m\]]\[\e[0m\] \[\e[97;1m\]~\[\e[92;5m\]\$\[\e[0m\] '
Note: The “$” prompt flashes like a typical cursor.
Mine shows the user and host, git commit and branch, docker context and directory, color coded based on status of git:
[root@server001|G:19e526e@(master)|D:myContext|currentDir] $
## PS1 adapted from https://gist.github.com/xenji/2292341 ps1_generator() { # docker context inspect --format '{{ .Name }}' Time12h="\T"; Time12a="\@"; ShortHost="\h"; Username="\u"; PathShort="\W"; PathFull="\w"; NewLine="\n"; Jobs="\j"; test -f ~/.config/git-prompt.sh || \ curl -L https://raw.github.com/git/git/master/contrib/compl etion/git-prompt.sh \ > ~/.config/git-prompt.sh source ~/.config/git-prompt.sh Color_Off="\[\033[0m\]"; IBlack="\[\033[0;90m\]"; BWhite="\[\03 3[1;37m\]"; BGreen="\[\033[1;32m\]"; BIRed="\[\033[1;91m\]"; BIWhite="\[\033[1;97m\]"; BIPurple="\[\ 033[1;95m\]"; BIBlue="\[\033[1;94m\]"; GIT_PS1='$(git branch &>/dev/null;\ if [ $? -eq 0 ]; then \ echo "$(echo `git status` | \grep "nothing to commit" > /dev/null 2>&1; \ DIRTY="$?"; \ HEADREV=`git log --pretty=%h -n 1`; \ echo -n "|G:'${BWhite}'$HEADREV"; \ if [ "$DIRTY" -eq "0" ]; then \ # @4 - Clean repository - nothing to commit echo "@'${BGreen}'"$(__git_ps1 "(%s)"); \ else \ # @5 - Changes to working tree echo "'${BIBlue}'@'${BIRed}'"$(__git_ps1 "{%s}"); \ fi)'${Color_Off}'"; \ else \ # @2 - Prompt when not in GIT repo echo ""; \ fi)' if docker context inspect >/dev/null 2>&1; then DOCKER_PS1='|D:'${BIBlue}'$(docker context inspect --format "{{ .Name }}")'${Color_Off} fi USER_PS1=${BIPurple}${Username}'@'${ShortHost}${Color_Off} PATH_PS1='|'${BWhite}${PathShort}${Color_Off} export PS1='['${USER_PS1}${GIT_PS1}${DOCKER_PS1}${PATH_PS1}'] $ ' } ps1_generator && unset -f ps1_generator
Are you dowloading and sourcing a file from the internet on your prompt? That sounds a bit scary!
Well, yeah, but it’s git: https://raw.github.com/git/git/master/contrib/completion/git-prompt.sh
My thinking is that I trust git on my computer, so I trust downloading from their repo.
But you’re right. I should revisit this and see if it’s even necessary.
Is this running in your rc (i.e. every single time you open a terminal)? Even if it’s safe, I’d be annoyed by any delay.
It is in my .bashrc, but any delay is not noticeable.
Yeah, its checking if the file exists first, so it’s not doing it all the time.
My worry is more related to repos takeovers or hacks. This is pretty hidden, so it could be easy to even forget it’s there, probably not the worst, but still…
I didn’t even know I needed to edit my prompt, but now I don’t know how I have lived with it for so long.
export PS1="\[\e]0;\u@\h:\w\a\]\[\e[1;34m\]\u@\h:\w\[\e[0m\]\$ "
I am a simple man.
Mine is simple (inspired by Kali Linux, if that’s even correct)
PS1='\[\033[0;32m\]┌──[\t] (\u@\h)-[\w]\n└─$ \[\033[0m\]'
Prompt is pretty simple, mainly just adjusted coloring and added a timestamp.
PS1='${debian_chroot:+($debian_chroot)}\[\033[01;36;01m\]\t \[\033[01;32m\]\u@\[\033[01;37;01m\]\h\[\033[00m\]:\[\033[01;36m\]\w\[\033[00m\]\$ '
I use zsh, but my old Bash prompt looks almost the same ash my Zsh prompt. Sorry, no screenshot, but here’s the code:
export PS1='\[\033[01;34m\][\[\033[01;37m\] \W\[\033[01;34m\]]\$\033[01;34m\] $(git branch 2>/dev/null | grep '^*' | colrm 1 2)\n\033[01;34m└─>\033[37m '