Customize Prompt

To customize the default bash prompt you have to edit the environment variable “PS1″. The standard prompt of Mac OS X looks like the following:

hermes:~ eddie$

You can use multiple further options on this prompt e.g. to show the time, command number, coloring parts of the prompt. If you want to create a prompt like

15:43:38 eddie@hermes: ~ (1) $

you have to insert the following line into ~/.bash_profile:

export PS1="\[\e[0;36m\]\t \[\e[0;32m\]\u@\h:
 \[\e[0m\]\w (\#) $ "

(Insert the above command in one line!)

You can get further infromation from the bash man page. A detailed tutorial to customize the prompt is also available. You can find an overview about the different color codes at the Bash Prompt How-To. Also you should read the complete How-To to tame bash.

colored output for “ls”

To color specific files (symbolic links, directories) you can call “ls” with the option “-G”:

hermes:~ eddie$ ls -G

You can define this command as an alias inserting the following into ~/.bash_profile to activate the colored output by default:

alias ls="ls -G"

Alternatively you can set the environment variable “CLICOLOR”:

export CLICOLOR="yes"