Table of Contents

Shell Prompt

Introduce the way the shell prompt is displayed and record some tips.

Change prompt

change prompt temporarily

Change Prompt Permanently

Prompt Options

The following options you can use for the BASH prompt are copied from https://phoenixnap.com/kb/change-bash-prompt-linux.

Some of these options may not work on all versions of Linux.
    \a – A bell character
    \d – Date (day/month/date)
    \D{format} – Use this to call the system to respond with the current time
    \e – Escape character
    \h – Hostname (short)
    \H – Full hostname (domain name)
    \j – Number of jobs being managed by the shell
    \l – The basename of the shells terminal device
    \n – New line
    \r – Carriage return
    \s – The name of the shell
    \t – Time (hour:minute:second)
    \@ – Time, 12-hour AM/PM
    \A – Time, 24-hour, without seconds
    \u – Current username
    \v – BASH version
    \V – Extra information about the BASH version
    \w – Current working directory ($HOME is represented by ~)
    \W – The basename of the working directory ($HOME is represented by ~)
    \! – Lists this command’s number in the history
    \# – This command’s command number
    \$ – Specifies whether the user is root (#) or otherwise ($)
    \\– Backslash
    \[ – Start a sequence of non-displayed characters (useful if you want to add a command or instruction set to the prompt)
    \] – Close or end a sequence of non-displayed characters

Reference