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How to shorten the bash shell prompt


So sometimes it happens that you are working on command terminal and you navigate inside a directory then again in inner directory and so on until half of the screen width is filled with prompt string. Example below....

rana@Brahma: dir1/dir2/dir3/dir4/dir5/dir6/dir7/dir8 $ ls 

Now I want to display just the last directory in terminal prompt string so that I am left with enough width space to execute length commands.

For this We need to change the prompt string from .bashrc file. Below are the steps -

1. Go to your home directory.
2. Open .bashrc file.
3. Search for string 'PS1'. To search quick open the file in vi and type /PS1 and hit enter.
4. now you will find below code. (or similar to it) [ I am working on Ubuntu 16.04]
if [ "$color_prompt" = yes ]; then
    PS1='${debian_chroot:+($debian_chroot)}\[\033[01;32m\]\u@\h\[\033[00m\]:\[\033[01;34m\]\w\[\033[00m\]\$ '
else
    PS1='${debian_chroot:+($debian_chroot)}\u@\h:\w\$ '
fi
5. Replace the 'w' (highlighted in blue color) with capital W. So your new code will be.
if [ "$color_prompt" = yes ]; then
    PS1='${debian_chroot:+($debian_chroot)}\[\033[01;32m\]\u@\h\[\033[00m\]: \[\033[01;34m\]\W\[\033[00m\]\$ '
else
    PS1='${debian_chroot:+($debian_chroot)}\u@\h:\w\$ '
fi
6. Restart the terminal and navigate inside any directory. You will see just the last directory in teminal prompt.
rana@Brahma: dir8$

Happy Learning.


 

1 comment:

  1. great and nice blog thanks sharing..I just want to say that all the information you have given here is awesome...Thank you very much for this one.
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