12. Example Prompts

12.2 A "Lightweight" Prompt

function proml {
local BLUE="\[\033[0;34m\]"
local RED="\[\033[0;31m\]"
local LIGHT_RED="\[\033[1;31m\]"
local WHITE="\[\033[1;37m\]"
local NO_COLOUR="\[\033[0m\]"
case $TERM in
    xterm*)
        TITLEBAR='\[\033]0;\u@\h:\w\007\]'
        ;;
    *)
        TITLEBAR=""
        ;;
esac

PS1="${TITLEBAR}\
$BLUE[$RED\$(date +%H%M)$BLUE]\
$BLUE[$LIGHT_RED\u@\h:\w$BLUE]\
$WHITE\$$NO_COLOUR "
PS2='> '
PS4='+ '
}

12.3 Elite from Bashprompt Themes

Note that this requires a VGA font.

# Created by KrON from windowmaker on IRC
# Changed by Spidey 08/06
function elite {
PS1="\[\033[31m\]\332\304\[\033[34m\](\[\033[31m\]\u\[\033[34m\]@\[\033[31m\]\h\
\[\033[34m\])\[\033[31m\]-\[\033[34m\](\[\033[31m\]\$(date +%I:%M%P)\
\[\033[34m\]-:-\[\033[31m\]\$(date +%m)\[\033[34m\033[31m\]/\$(date +%d)\
\[\033[34m\])\[\033[31m\]\304-\[\033[34m]\\371\[\033[31m\]-\371\371\
\[\033[34m\]\372\n\[\033[31m\]\300\304\[\033[34m\](\[\033[31m\]\W\[\033[34m\])\
\[\033[31m\]\304\371\[\033[34m\]\372\[\033[00m\]"
PS2="> "
}

12.4 A "Power User" Prompt

I actually do use this prompt, but it results in noticeable delays in the appearance of the prompt on a single-user PII-400, so I wouldn't recommend using it on a multi-user P-100 or anything ... Look at it for ideas, rather than as a practical prompt.

#!/bin/bash
#----------------------------------------------------------------------
#       POWER USER PROMPT "pprom2"
#----------------------------------------------------------------------
#
#   Created August 98, Last Modified 9 November 98 by Giles
#
#   Problem: when load is going down, it says "1.35down-.08", get rid 
#   of the negative

function prompt_command
{
#   Create TotalMeg variable: sum of visible file sizes in current directory
local TotalBytes=0
for Bytes in $(ls -l | grep "^-" | cut -c30-41)
do
    let TotalBytes=$TotalBytes+$Bytes
done
TotalMeg=$(echo -e "scale=3 \nx=$TotalBytes/1048576\n if (x<1) {print \"0\"} \n print x \nquit" | bc)

#      This is used to calculate the differential in load values
#      provided by the "uptime" command.  "uptime" gives load 
#      averages at 1, 5, and 15 minute marks.
#
local one=$(uptime | sed -e "s/.*load average: \(.*\...\), \(.*\...\), \(.*\...\)/\1/" -e "s/ //g")
local five=$(uptime | sed -e "s/.*load average: \(.*\...\), \(.*\...\), \(.*\...\).*/\2/" -e "s/ //g")
local diff1_5=$(echo -e "scale = scale ($one) \nx=$one - $five\n if (x>0) {print \"up\"} else {print \"down\"}\n print x \nquit \n" | bc)
loaddiff="$(echo -n "${one}${diff1_5}")"

#   Count visible files:
let files=$(ls -l | grep "^-" | wc -l | tr -d " ")
let hiddenfiles=$(ls -l -d .* | grep "^-" | wc -l | tr -d " ")
let executables=$(ls -l | grep ^-..x | wc -l | tr -d " ")
let directories=$(ls -l | grep "^d" | wc -l | tr -d " ")
let hiddendirectories=$(ls -l -d .* | grep "^d" | wc -l | tr -d " ")-2
let linktemp=$(ls -l | grep "^l" | wc -l | tr -d " ")
if [ "$linktemp" -eq "0" ]
then
    links=""
else
    links=" ${linktemp}l"
fi
unset linktemp
let devicetemp=$(ls -l | grep "^[bc]" | wc -l | tr -d " ")
if [ "$devicetemp" -eq "0" ]
then
    devices=""
else
    devices=" ${devicetemp}bc"
fi
unset devicetemp

}

PROMPT_COMMAND=prompt_command

function pprom2 {

local        BLUE="\[\033[0;34m\]"
local  LIGHT_GRAY="\[\033[0;37m\]"
local LIGHT_GREEN="\[\033[1;32m\]"
local  LIGHT_BLUE="\[\033[1;34m\]"
local  LIGHT_CYAN="\[\033[1;36m\]"
local      YELLOW="\[\033[1;33m\]"
local       WHITE="\[\033[1;37m\]"
local         RED="\[\033[0;31m\]"
local   NO_COLOUR="\[\033[0m\]"

case $TERM in
    xterm*)
        TITLEBAR='\[\033]0;\u@\h:\w\007\]'
        ;;
    *)
        TITLEBAR=""
        ;;
esac

PS1="$TITLEBAR\
$BLUE[$RED\$(date +%H%M)$BLUE]\
$BLUE[$RED\u@\h$BLUE]\
$BLUE[\
$LIGHT_GRAY\${files}.\${hiddenfiles}-\
$LIGHT_GREEN\${executables}x \
$LIGHT_GRAY(\${TotalMeg}Mb) \
$LIGHT_BLUE\${directories}.\
\${hiddendirectories}d\
$LIGHT_CYAN\${links}\
$YELLOW\${devices}\
$BLUE]\
$BLUE[${WHITE}\${loaddiff}$BLUE]\
$BLUE[\
$WHITE\$(ps ax | wc -l | sed -e \"s: ::g\")proc\
$BLUE]\
\n\
$BLUE[$RED\$PWD$BLUE]\
$WHITE\$\
\
$NO_COLOUR "
PS2='> '
PS4='+ '
}

12.5 Prompt Depending on Connection Type

Bradley M Alexander (storm@tux.org) had the excellent idea of reminding his users what kind of connection they were using to his machine(s), so he colour-codes prompts dependent on connection type. Here's the bashrc he supplied to me:

# /etc/bashrc

# System wide functions and aliases
# Environment stuff goes in /etc/profile

# For some unknown reason bash refuses to inherit
# PS1 in some circumstances that I can't figure out.
# Putting PS1 here ensures that it gets loaded every time.

# Set up prompts. Color code them for logins. Red for root, white for 
# user logins, green for ssh sessions, cyan for telnet,
# magenta with red "(ssh)" for ssh + su, magenta for telnet.
THIS_TTY=tty`ps aux | grep $$ | grep bash | awk '{ print $7 }'`
SESS_SRC=`who | grep $THIS_TTY | awk '{ print $6 }'`

SSH_FLAG=0
SSH_IP=`echo $SSH_CLIENT | awk '{ print $1 }'`
if [ $SSH_IP ] ; then
  SSH_FLAG=1
fi
SSH2_IP=`echo $SSH2_CLIENT | awk '{ print $1 }'`
if [ $SSH2_IP ] ; then
  SSH_FLAG=1
fi
if [ $SSH_FLAG -eq 1 ] ; then
  CONN=ssh
elif [ -z $SESS_SRC ] ; then
  CONN=lcl
elif [ $SESS_SRC = "(:0.0)" -o $SESS_SRC = "" ] ; then
  CONN=lcl
else
  CONN=tel
fi

# Okay...Now who we be?
if [ `/usr/bin/whoami` = "root" ] ; then
  USR=priv
else
  USR=nopriv
fi

#Set some prompts...
if [ $CONN = lcl -a $USR = nopriv ] ; then
  PS1="[\u \W]\\$ "
elif [ $CONN = lcl -a $USR = priv ] ; then
  PS1="\[\033[01;31m\][\w]\\$\[\033[00m\] "
elif [ $CONN = tel -a $USR = nopriv ] ; then
  PS1="\[\033[01;34m\][\u@\h \W]\\$\[\033[00m\] "
elif [ $CONN = tel -a $USR = priv ] ; then
  PS1="\[\033[01;30;45m\][\u@\h \W]\\$\[\033[00m\] "
elif [ $CONN = ssh -a $USR = nopriv ] ; then
  PS1="\[\033[01;32m\][\u@\h \W]\\$\[\033[00m\] "
elif [ $CONN = ssh -a $USR = priv ] ; then
  PS1="\[\033[01;35m\][\u@\h \W]\\$\[\033[00m\] "
fi

# PS1="[\u@\h \W]\\$ "
export PS1
alias which="type -path"
alias dir="ls -lF --color"
alias dirs="ls -lFS --color"
alias h=history

12.6 A Prompt the Width of Your Term

A friend complained that he didn't like having a prompt that kept changing size because it had $PWD in it, so I wrote this prompt that adjusts its size to exactly the width of your term, with the working directory on the top line of two.

#!/bin/bash

#   termwide prompt
#      by Giles - created 2 November 98
#
#   The idea here is to have the upper line of this two line prompt 
#   always be the width of your term.  Do this by calculating the
#   width of the text elements, and putting in fill as appropriate
#   or left-truncating $PWD.
#

function prompt_command {

TERMWIDTH=${COLUMNS}

#   Calculate the width of the prompt:

hostnam=$(echo -n $HOSTNAME | sed -e "s/[\.].*//")
#   "whoami" and "pwd" include a trailing newline
usernam=$(whoami)
let usersize=$(echo -n $usernam | wc -c | tr -d " ")
newPWD="${PWD}"
let pwdsize=$(echo -n ${newPWD} | wc -c | tr -d " ")
#   Add all the accessories below ...
let promptsize=$(echo -n "--(${usernam}@${hostnam})---(${PWD})--" \
                 | wc -c | tr -d " ")
let fillsize=${TERMWIDTH}-${promptsize}
fill=""
while [ "$fillsize" -gt "0" ] 
do 
   fill="${fill}-"
   let fillsize=${fillsize}-1
done

if [ "$fillsize" -lt "0" ]
then
   let cut=3-${fillsize}
   newPWD="...$(echo -n $PWD | sed -e "s/\(^.\{$cut\}\)\(.*\)/\2/")"
fi
}

PROMPT_COMMAND=prompt_command

function termwide {

local GRAY="\[\033[1;30m\]"
local LIGHT_GRAY="\[\033[0;37m\]"
local WHITE="\[\033[1;37m\]"
local NO_COLOUR="\[\033[0m\]"

local LIGHT_BLUE="\[\033[1;34m\]"
local YELLOW="\[\033[1;33m\]"

case $TERM in
    xterm*)
        TITLEBAR='\[\033]0;\u@\h:\w\007\]'
        ;;
    *)
        TITLEBAR=""
        ;;
esac

PS1="$TITLEBAR\
$YELLOW-$LIGHT_BLUE-(\
$YELLOW\${usernam}$LIGHT_BLUE@$YELLOW\${hostnam}\
${LIGHT_BLUE})-${YELLOW}-\${fill}${LIGHT_BLUE}-(\
$YELLOW\${newPWD}\
$LIGHT_BLUE)-$YELLOW-\
\n\
$YELLOW-$LIGHT_BLUE-(\
$YELLOW\$(date +%H%M)$LIGHT_BLUE:$YELLOW\$(date \"+%a,%d %b %y\")\
$LIGHT_BLUE:$WHITE\$$LIGHT_BLUE)-\
$YELLOW-\
$NO_COLOUR " 

PS2="$LIGHT_BLUE-$YELLOW-$YELLOW-$NO_COLOUR "

}

12.7 The Elegant Useless Clock Prompt

This is one of the more attractive (and useless) prompts I've made. Because many X terminal emulators don't implement cursor position save and restore, the alternative when putting a clock in the upper right corner is to anchor the cursor at the bottom of the terminal. This builds on the idea of the "termwide" prompt above, drawing a line up the right side of the screen from the prompt to the clock. A VGA font is required.

Note: There is an odd substitution in here, that may not print properly being translated from SGML to other formats: I had to substitute the screen character for \304 - I would normally have just included the sequence "\304", but it was necessary to make this substitution in this case.

#!/bin/bash

#   This prompt requires a VGA font.  The prompt is anchored at the bottom
#   of the terminal, fills the width of the terminal, and draws a line up
#   the right side of the terminal to attach itself to a clock in the upper
#   right corner of the terminal.

function prompt_command {
#   Calculate the width of the prompt:
hostnam=$(echo -n $HOSTNAME | sed -e "s/[\.].*//")
#   "whoami" and "pwd" include a trailing newline
usernam=$(whoami)
newPWD="${PWD}"
#   Add all the accessories below ...
let promptsize=$(echo -n "--(${usernam}@${hostnam})---(${PWD})-----" \
                 | wc -c | tr -d " ")
#   Figure out how much to add between user@host and PWD (or how much to
#   remove from PWD)
let fillsize=${COLUMNS}-${promptsize}
fill=""
#   Make the filler if prompt isn't as wide as the terminal:
while [ "$fillsize" -gt "0" ] 
do 
   fill="${fill}Ä"
   # The A with the umlaut over it (it will appear as a long dash if
   # you're using a VGA font) is \304, but I cut and pasted it in
   # because Bash will only do one substitution - which in this case is
   # putting $fill in the prompt.
   let fillsize=${fillsize}-1
done
#   Right-truncate PWD if the prompt is going to be wider than the terminal:
if [ "$fillsize" -lt "0" ]
then
   let cutt=3-${fillsize}
   newPWD="...$(echo -n $PWD | sed -e "s/\(^.\{$cutt\}\)\(.*\)/\2/")"
fi
#
#   Create the clock and the bar that runs up the right side of the term
#
local LIGHT_BLUE="\033[1;34m"
local     YELLOW="\033[1;33m"
#   Position the cursor to print the clock:
echo -en "\033[2;$((${COLUMNS}-9))H"
echo -en "$LIGHT_BLUE($YELLOW$(date +%H%M)$LIGHT_BLUE)\304$YELLOW\304\304\277"
local i=${LINES}
echo -en "\033[2;${COLUMNS}H"
#   Print vertical dashes down the side of the terminal:
while [ $i -ge 4 ]
do
   echo -en "\033[$(($i-1));${COLUMNS}H\263"
   let i=$i-1
done

let prompt_line=${LINES}-1
#   This is needed because doing \${LINES} inside a Bash mathematical
#   expression (ie. $(())) doesn't seem to work.
}

PROMPT_COMMAND=prompt_command

function clock3 {
local LIGHT_BLUE="\[\033[1;34m\]"
local     YELLOW="\[\033[1;33m\]"
local      WHITE="\[\033[1;37m\]"
local LIGHT_GRAY="\[\033[0;37m\]"
local  NO_COLOUR="\[\033[0m\]"

case $TERM in
    xterm*)
        TITLEBAR='\[\033]0;\u@\h:\w\007\]'
        ;;
    *)
        TITLEBAR=""
        ;;
esac

PS1="$TITLEBAR\
\[\033[\${prompt_line};0H\]
$YELLOW\332$LIGHT_BLUE\304(\
$YELLOW\${usernam}$LIGHT_BLUE@$YELLOW\${hostnam}\
${LIGHT_BLUE})\304${YELLOW}\304\${fill}${LIGHT_BLUE}\304(\
$YELLOW\${newPWD}\
$LIGHT_BLUE)\304$YELLOW\304\304\304\331\
\n\
$YELLOW\300$LIGHT_BLUE\304(\
$YELLOW\$(date \"+%a,%d %b %y\")\
$LIGHT_BLUE:$WHITE\$$LIGHT_BLUE)\304\
$YELLOW\304\
$LIGHT_GRAY " 

PS2="$LIGHT_BLUE\304$YELLOW\304$YELLOW\304$NO_COLOUR "

}