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April
21, 2003 (Tip) -
Changing your Command Prompt (the PS1
shell variable)
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The
UNIX shell displays a command prompt when
the system is ready to accept commands on
the command line. The default
command prompt is a single character
(typically $ or #).
Changing or customizing the command prompt
makes your life easier when jumping from
system to system, or when logging in as
multiple users on a single system (e.g. your
personal/non-privileged account and
root). To customize your prompt you
will need to modify the PS1 shell
variable.
PS1 stands for "prompt string 1" and defines the primary prompt
string. If you wanted your command
prompt to contain the current username and
hostname separated by the "@" character
and enclosed in brackets (e.g. [root@hawk] #),
PS1 would need to be re-defined with the
following command(s):
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export PS1="[${LOGNAME}@$(hostname)] # "
or
PS1="[${LOGNAME}@$(hostname)] # "
export PS1
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The
shell variable LOGNAME contains the
username you logged in with, and
$(hostname) will execute the hostname
command which will print the name of the
current host system. Exporting PS1
makes it available to any subshells you create during the login session.
Since PS1 in this example was re-defined
on the command line, it will be lost as
soon as you log out. To retain this
definition across login sessions you will
need to add the previous command(s) to
your shell initialization file (.profile
if the Korn shell is your default shell).
NOTE: The commands in this tip were tested
with the Korn shell only.
Learn
more...
If you are new to the UNIX or Linux
operating system and would like to learn
more about shells, shell commands, and
shell variables, you may want to consider
registering for LiveFire Labs' UNIX
and Linux Operating System Fundamentals
online training course.
If you already have a solid grasp of the
fundamentals but would like to learn more
about the Korn shell and basic and
advanced shell scripting, taking our Korn
Shell Scripting course will be
beneficial to you.
Our innovative hands-on training model
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