how to get [ current_path ] in shell bash prompt?

Question

Is it possible to have the name of the current working directory in the prompt in shell ?

Im working on OSX and CentOS in multiple projects under /srv/... and a mistake for wrong directory is quickly made.

I would like to have

[current_path] in my prompt somehow , perhaps coloured Is this possible?

For example like /srv/myproject it would give prompt [root@server [myproject]# This should stay the same even in /srv/myproject/app/etc

If you're in `/srv/myproject/app/etc/` then how should it determine that you want to see `[myproject]` instead of `[app]` or `[etc]`? — DerfK, Jun 25 '13 at 17:13

score 2 · Answer 1 · answered Jun 25 '13 at 17:01

2

The character sequence for the full current working directory in $PS1 is \w. See "Tip: Prompt magic" for more details.

answered Jun 25 '13 at 17:01

Ignacio Vazquez-Abrams

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ewwhite · Answer 2 · 2013-06-25T17:13:54.163

2

I use the following string in /etc/bashrc on my Linux systems. Usually it's a matter of replacing an upper-case "W" with lower-case "w" on most default Bash installations:

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

This yields:

[root@MDMarra /ppro/edi/0010/GOODBI/receive/archive]#

instead of:

[root@MDMarra archive]#

edited Jun 25 '13 at 17:13

answered Jun 25 '13 at 17:03

ewwhite

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thank you but i ment more like /srv/myproject it would give prompt [root@server [myproject]# – Rubytastic Jun 25 '13 at 17:09
The "w" option will show the FULL path... See my update. – ewwhite Jun 25 '13 at 17:13
I pop up everywhere! – MDMarra Jun 26 '13 at 01:50

score 0 · Accepted Answer · answered Jun 26 '13 at 01:45

This should be close to what you're looking for:

PS1="\$([[ \$PWD == /srv/*/* ]] && p=\${PWD#/*/} && p=[\${p%%/*}]; echo -n \"\$p$ \" )"

For testing, use this to show the full directory along with the truncated one for comparison:

PS1="\$([[ \$PWD == /srv/*/* ]] && p=\${PWD#/*/} && p=[\${p%%/*}]; echo -n \"[\$PWD] \$p$ \" )"

The escapes cause the variable expansion to be deferred until the prompt is issued. The parameter expansions strip off the first level directory and all directory levels below the second level.

You will probably need:

shopt -s promptvars

but I think it's the default.

The prompt only does its job when you're in a directory under /srv

This is one way to add some color. It makes the project name cyan.

PS1="\$([[ \$PWD == /srv/*/* ]] && p=\${PWD#/*/} && p='[\[\033[1;36m\]'\${p%%/*}'\[\033[0m\]]'; echo -n \"\$p$ \" )"

how to get [ current_path ] in shell bash prompt?

3 Answers3