bash color shell prompt

You can customized 4 prompts: PS1 (Primary prompt, displayed before each command), PS2 (secondary prompt, displayed when command needs more input), PS3 (rarely used, displayed for Bash's select built-in which displays interactive menus).

Display current bash prompt (PS1) settings:

echo $PS1

Output: [\u@\h \W]\$

It is default settings. The backslash-escaped characters means: \u (username), \h (hostname), \W (current working directory).

To modify colors to the prompt use following syntax:

\e[x;ym $PS1 \e[m

Meaning: \e[ (start color scheme), x;y (color pair to use), $PS1 (shell prompt variable), \e[m (stop color scheme)

To set red color enter:

export PS1="\e[0;36m[\u@\h \W]\$ \e[m "

Few examples of color codes:

• black(0;30)
• red (0;31)
• greed (0;32)
• brown (0;33)
• blue (0;34)
• purple (0:35)
• cyan (0:36)

Setting variable PS1 is temporary, when you logout your settings will be lost. You have to append following line to $HOME/.bash_profile file or $HOME/.bashrc file:

export PS1="\e[0;36m[\u@\h \W]\$ \e[m "

Now ur new prompt color is permanent.

Was this information helpful to you? You have the power to keep it alive.
Each donated € will be spent on running and expanding this page about UNIX Shell.