Changing colors for user, host, directory information in terminal command prompt
You can edit the settings editing the file: ~/.bashrc.
Open the file:
gedit ~/.bashrc.Look for the line with
#force_color_prompt=yesand uncomment (delete the#).Look for the line below
if [ "$color_prompt" = yes ]; thenthat should looks like:PS1='${debian_chroot:+($debian_chroot)}\[\033[01;32m\]\u@\h\[\033[00m\]:\[\033[01;34m\]\w\[\033[00m\]\$ 'Pay attention at the part
\u@\hit is saying "user@host" and the number before it\[\033[01;32m\]indicates the color. This is what you have to change. For example, lets change the user to purple, the "@" to black and host to green. Edit the line so it looks like:PS1='${debian_chroot:+($debian_chroot)}\[\033[01;35m\]\u\[\033[01;30m\]@\[\033[01;32m\]\h\[\033[00m\]:\[\033[01;34m\]\w\[\033[00m\]\$ '
Result:
The colors numbers are:
Black 0;30 Dark Gray 1;30 Blue 0;34 Light Blue 1;34 Green 0;32 Light Green 1;32 Cyan 0;36 Light Cyan 1;36 Red 0;31 Light Red 1;31 Purple 0;35 Light Purple 1;35 Brown 0;33 Yellow 1;33 Light Gray 0;37 White 1;37
References: 1, 2.
You can try the BashrcGenerator. This is by far the easiest way to get a prompt like you want. I've noticed that the colors defined here may be different from your own system, but that's a small issue. With the generated code you can change the colors yourself.
Server user:
export PS1="\[\e[01;37m\][\[\e[0m\]\[\e[01;32m\]\u\[\e[0m\]\[\e[00;37m\]@\[\e[0m\]\[\e[01;34m\]\h\[\e[0m\]\[\e[00;37m\] \[\e[0m\]\[\e[00;37m\]\t\[\e[0m\]\[\e[01;37m\] \W]\\$ \[\e[0m\]"
Server root:
export PS1="\[\e[01;37m\][\[\e[0m\]\[\e[01;31m\]\u\[\e[0m\]\[\e[00;37m\]@\[\e[0m\]\[\e[01;34m\]\h\[\e[0m\]\[\e[00;37m\] \[\e[0m\]\[\e[00;37m\]\t\[\e[0m\]\[\e[01;37m\] \W]\\$ \[\e[0m\]"
And if needed you can change hostname color to reflect different type of servers.
I use different format for my local computer:
export PS1="\[\e[01;33m\]\u\[\e[0m\]\[\e[00;37m\]@\[\e[0m\]\[\e[01;36m\]\h\[\e[0m\]\[\e[00;37m\] \t \[\e[0m\]\[\e[01;35m\]\w\[\e[0m\]\[\e[01;37m\] > \[\e[0m\]"
My favorite now:
export PS1="\n\[\e[01;33m\]\u\[\e[0m\]\[\e[00;37m\]@\[\e[0m\]\[\e[01;36m\]\h\[\e[0m\]\[\e[00;37m\] \t \[\e[0m\]\[\e[01;35m\]\w\[\e[0m\]\[\e[01;37m\] \[\e[0m\]\n$ "
This last prompt has one nice touch. It adds a newline after the prompt, and an empty newline before. Now you can display the complete directory path without problem, and it makes it more clear where a new command starts, in case of long output.
Another update, as ZSH is now the default shell on Macos. This is to be edited in .zshrc:
NEWLINE=$'\n'
DATE=$( date +"[%Y-%m-%d %H:%M:%S]" )
PROMPT="${NEWLINE}%F{yellow}${DATE} %(!.%F{red}.%F{white})%n%F{cyan}@%m %F{yellow}%d${NEWLINE}%F{reset}> "
For details, see this detailed HOWTO.
In short, you can alter the prompt by editing the $PS1 environment variable. There's so much to say here, that I'll just show you my prompt and refer you to the link above for more details.
The color-related parts are in the function setPrompt:
# This function from: https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Color_Bash_Prompt_%28%D0%A0%D1%83%D1%81%D1%81%D0%BA%D0%B8%D0%B9%29#Wolfman.27s
##################################################
# Fancy PWD display function
##################################################
# The home directory (HOME) is replaced with a ~
# The last pwdmaxlen characters of the PWD are displayed
# Leading partial directory names are striped off
# /home/me/stuff -> ~/stuff if USER=me
# /usr/share/big_dir_name -> ../share/big_dir_name if pwdmaxlen=20
##################################################
bash_prompt_shortener() {
# How many characters of the $PWD should be kept
local pwdmaxlen=25
# Indicate that there has been dir truncation
local trunc_symbol=".."
local dir=${PWD##*/}
pwdmaxlen=$(( ( pwdmaxlen < ${#dir} ) ? ${#dir} : pwdmaxlen ))
NEW_PWD=${PWD/#$HOME/\~}
local pwdoffset=$(( ${#NEW_PWD} - pwdmaxlen ))
if [ ${pwdoffset} -gt "0" ]
then
NEW_PWD=${NEW_PWD:$pwdoffset:$pwdmaxlen}
NEW_PWD=${trunc_symbol}/${NEW_PWD#*/}
fi
}
function setPrompt {
COLOR1="\[\033[1;33m\]" #First color
COLOR2="\[\033[0;33m\]" #Second color
NO_COLOR="\[\033[0m\]" #Transparent - don't change
case $TERM in
xterm*)
TITLEBAR="\[\033]0;\h - \w\007\]"
;;
*)
TITLEBAR=""
;;
esac
local dash_open="${COLOR1}-${COLOR2}-"
local dash_close="${COLOR2}-${COLOR1}-"
local spacer="${COLOR2}-"
local jobs_and_history="${COLOR2}(${COLOR1}\!${COLOR2}:${COLOR1}\j${COLOR2})"
local user_host="${COLOR2}(${COLOR1}\u${COLOR2}@${COLOR1}\H${COLOR2})"
local host="${COLOR2}(${COLOR1}\H${COLOR2})"
local root_or_not="${COLOR2}(${COLOR1}\\\$${COLOR2})"
local cwd="${COLOR2}(${COLOR1}\w${COLOR2})"
#PS1="${TITLEBAR}${COLOR1}-${COLOR2}-(${COLOR1}\!${COLOR2}:${COLOR1}\j${COLOR2})-(${COLOR1}\w${COLOR2})-${COLOR1}-\n-${COLOR2}-(${COLOR1}\u${COLOR2}@${COLOR1}\H${COLOR2})-(${COLOR1}\\\$${COLOR2})-${COLOR1}- ${NO_COLOR}"
#PS1="${TITLEBAR}${dash_open}${cwd}${spacer}${root_or_not}${dash_close}\n${dash_open}${jobs_and_history}${spacer}${host}${dash_close}${NO_COLOR} "
#PS2="${COLOR2}--${COLOR1}- ${NO_COLOR}"
PS1="${TITLEBAR}${COLOR1}"'${NEW_PWD}'"${COLOR2}:\$${NO_COLOR} "
PS2="$spacer$dash_close$NO_COLOR "
}
bash_prompt_shortener
setPrompt
unset setPrompt
#Determine and display the exit Status of the last command, if non-zero.
function checkExitStatus() {
local status="$?"
local signal=""
local COLOR1="\033[0;0;33m" #First color
local COLOR2="\033[0;0;36m" #Second color
local NO_COLOR="\033[0m" #Transparent - don't change
if [ ${status} -ne 0 -a ${status} != 128 ]; then
# If process exited by a signal, determine name of signal.
if [ ${status} -gt 128 ]; then
signal="$(builtin kill -l $((${status} - 128)) 2>/dev/null)"
if [ "$signal" ]; then
signal="$signal"
fi
fi
echo -e "${COLOR1}[Exit ${COLOR2}${status} ${signal}${COLOR1}]${NO_COLOR}" 1>&2
#echo -ne "${COLOR1}[Exit ${COLOR2}${status}${COLOR1} ${COLOR2}${signal}${COLOR1}]${NO_COLOR} " 1>&2
fi
return 0
}
print_prompt_time() {
printf "%*s\r" $(tput cols) "$(date '+%T')"
}
promptCmd() {
checkExitStatus
print_prompt_time
}
PROMPT_COMMAND=promptCmd
In addition to colors, my prompt has a few other features, such as abbreviated directory names (see the function bash_prompt_shortener), automatic display of the last command's exit status if nonzero (function checkExitStatus), and display of the time in the rightmost columns (function print_prompt_time).