Adding git branch on the Bash command prompt

git 1.9.3 or later: use __git_ps1

Git provides a shell script called git-prompt.sh, which includes a function __git_ps1 that

prints text to add to bash PS1 prompt (includes branch name)

Its most basic usage is:

$ __git_ps1
(master)

It also takes an optional format string:

$ __git_ps1 'git:[%s]'
git:[master]

How to Get It

First, copy the file to somewhere (e.g. ~/.git-prompt.sh).

Option 1: use an existing copy on your filesystem. Example (Mac OS X 10.15):

$ find / -name 'git-prompt.sh' -type f -print -quit 2>/dev/null
/Library/Developer/CommandLineTools/usr/share/git-core/git-prompt.sh

Option 2: Pull the script from GitHub.

Next, add the following line to your .bashrc/.zshrc:

source ~/.git-prompt.sh

Finally, change your PS1 to call __git_ps1 as command-substitution:

Bash:

PS1='[\u@\h \W$(__git_ps1 " (%s)")]\$ '

Zsh:

setopt PROMPT_SUBST ; PS1='[%n@%m %c$(__git_ps1 " (%s)")]\$ '

git < 1.9.3

But note that only git 1.9.3 (May 2014) or later allows you to safely display that branch name(!)

See commit 8976500 by Richard Hansen (richardhansen):

Both bash and zsh subject the value of PS1 to parameter expansion, command substitution, and arithmetic expansion.

Rather than include the raw, unescaped branch name in PS1 when running in two- or three-argument mode, construct PS1 to reference a variable that holds the branch name.

Because the shells do not recursively expand, this avoids arbitrary code execution by specially-crafted branch names such as

'$(IFS=_;cmd=sudo_rm_-rf_/;$cmd)'.

What devious mind would name a branch like that? ;) (Beside a Mom as in xkcd)

More Examples

still_dreaming_1 reports in the comments:

This seems to work great if you want a color prompt with xterm (in my .bashrc):

PS1='\[\e]0;\u@\h: \w\a\]\n${debian_chroot:+($debian_chroot)}\[\033[01;32m\]\u@\h\[\033[00m\]:\[\03‌​3[01;34m\]\w\[\033[00m\]$(__git_ps1)\$ '

Everything is a different color, including the branch.

In in Linux Mint 17.3 Cinnamon 64-bit:

PS1='${debian_chroot:+($debian_chroot)}\[\033[01;32m\]\u@\h\[\033[01;34m\] \w\[\033[00m\]$(__git_ps1) \$ '

As noted by J'e in the comments

Ubuntu

Modify PS1 assignments in your bashrc with,

PS1='${debian_chroot:+($debian_chroot)}\[\033[01;32m\]\u@\h\[\033[00m\]:\[\033[01;34m\]\w\[\033[00m\]\033[0;32m$(__git_ps1 " (%s)")\033[0m\$ '

# ---AND--- 

PS1='${debian_chroot:+($debian_chroot)}\u@\h:\w$(__git_ps1 " (%s)")\$ '

Follow the steps as below: (Linux)

Edit the file ~/.bashrc, to enter following lines at its end (In case, of Mac, file would be ~/.bash_profile)

# Git branch in prompt.
parse_git_branch() {
    git branch 2> /dev/null | sed -e '/^[^*]/d' -e 's/* \(.*\)/ (\1)/'
}
export PS1="\u@\h \W\[\033[32m\]\$(parse_git_branch)\[\033[00m\] $ "

Now, start the new terminal window, and try entering to any git-repo. The current branch would be shown, with the prompt.

4 More Info - MAC/Linux


1- If you don't have bash-completion ... : sudo apt-get install bash-completion

2- Edit your .bashrc file and check (or add) :

if [ -f /etc/bash_completion ]; then
  . /etc/bash_completion
fi

3- ... before your prompt line : export PS1='$(__git_ps1) \w\$ '
(__git_ps1 will show your git branch)

4- do source .bashrc

EDIT :

Further readings : Don’t Reinvent the Wheel


Here is how I configured the prompt to display Git status:

Get git-prompt script:

curl -o ~/.git-prompt.sh https://raw.githubusercontent.com/git/git/master/contrib/completion/git-prompt.sh

And customize your prompt adding the following code in your .bashrc file:

# Load Git functions
source ~/.git-prompt.sh

# Syntactic sugar for ANSI escape sequences
txtblk='\e[0;30m' # Black - Regular
txtred='\e[0;31m' # Red
txtgrn='\e[0;32m' # Green
txtylw='\e[0;33m' # Yellow
txtblu='\e[0;34m' # Blue
txtpur='\e[0;35m' # Purple
txtcyn='\e[0;36m' # Cyan
txtwht='\e[0;37m' # White
bldblk='\e[1;30m' # Black - Bold
bldred='\e[1;31m' # Red
bldgrn='\e[1;32m' # Green
bldylw='\e[1;33m' # Yellow
bldblu='\e[1;34m' # Blue
bldpur='\e[1;35m' # Purple
bldcyn='\e[1;36m' # Cyan
bldwht='\e[1;37m' # White
unkblk='\e[4;30m' # Black - Underline
undred='\e[4;31m' # Red
undgrn='\e[4;32m' # Green
undylw='\e[4;33m' # Yellow
undblu='\e[4;34m' # Blue
undpur='\e[4;35m' # Purple
undcyn='\e[4;36m' # Cyan
undwht='\e[4;37m' # White
bakblk='\e[40m'   # Black - Background
bakred='\e[41m'   # Red
badgrn='\e[42m'   # Green
bakylw='\e[43m'   # Yellow
bakblu='\e[44m'   # Blue
bakpur='\e[45m'   # Purple
bakcyn='\e[46m'   # Cyan
bakwht='\e[47m'   # White
txtrst='\e[0m'    # Text Reset

# Prompt variables
PROMPT_BEFORE="$txtcyn\u@\h $txtwht\w$txtrst"
PROMPT_AFTER="\\n\\\$ "

# Prompt command
PROMPT_COMMAND='__git_ps1 "$PROMPT_BEFORE" "$PROMPT_AFTER"'

# Git prompt features (read ~/.git-prompt.sh for reference)
export GIT_PS1_SHOWDIRTYSTATE="true"
export GIT_PS1_SHOWSTASHSTATE="true"
export GIT_PS1_SHOWUNTRACKEDFILES="true"
export GIT_PS1_SHOWUPSTREAM="auto"
export GIT_PS1_SHOWCOLORHINTS="true"

If you want to find out more, you can get all the dotfiles here: https://github.com/jamming/dotfiles

Tags:

Git

Bash

Ubuntu

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