Customizing Bash Prompt

June 25th, 2007 Posted in RevTI, System Administration

I install several servers 2 days ago, what I found after I login to SSH is that the bash prompt is different with my older server, it only show “bash-3.1#” instead of “[username@servername – directory] $”

I found “bash-3.1#” is difficult as I don’t know my current directory location. With a little bit Google search I get an answer.

You can customize your bash prompt by creating a file named .bash_profile (there is a “dot” in front of the filename)

Insert this code in .bash_profile file:

export PS1="[u@h w]$ "

now your bash prompt will look like this:

[user@localhost /home/user]$

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2 Responses to “Customizing Bash Prompt”

Willy Sudiarto Raharjo Says:

June 27th, 2007 at 8:42 pm
The problem is when you are in a deep directory structure, your prompt will be bloated
Markus Says:

June 28th, 2007 at 12:57 am
yes, you are correct. but I never go deeper than 10 subdirectory (as far as I remember)

in the case you’ll go to a very deep directory i think you can run this command to make your bash prompt shorter:
```
PS1="[u@h]$ "
```
your bash prompt should be look like this:
```
[user@localhost]$
```

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