Simple colored bash prompt

Defined in /etc/profile.d/bash-color-prompt.sh

(The latest version of this file lives at: https://src.fedoraproject.org/rpms/shell-color-prompt)

The prompt color theme can be customized simply with the prompt_color function, and optionally prompt_dir_color. prompt_highlight affects the userhost and directory parts of the prompt, but not their separator (prompt_separator).

For example prompt_color '33;44' gives yellow on a blue background. prompt_highlight '1;7' gives bold inverse-video

The prompt_dir_color function similarly changes the color of the working directory, which otherwise defaults to the prompt_color setting.

Since 0.6 coloring is inherited from the left: PROMPT_HIGHLIGHT -> PROMPT_COLOR -> (PROMPT_SEPARATOR_COLOR) -> PROMPT_DIR_COLOR -> (PROMPT_SEPARATOR_COLOR) -> PROMPT_GIT_COLOR

Note prompt_separator_color is specific to the separators between user-host and directory (and optionally git-branch if setup by user).

bash-color-prompt should not use any subprocesses in its default configuration.

Coloring Examples

$ prompt_color 0 # disable colors/attribs
$ prompt_color 1 # bold prompt
$ prompt_color 2 # dim prompt
$ prompt_color 4 # underline prompt
$ prompt_color '2;7' # dim reverse video
$ prompt_color '42' # green background
$ prompt_color '53' # overline separator
$ prompt_color '1;33;44' # bold yellow on blue
$ prompt_color '43;30' # black on yellow
$ prompt_color '1;32' # bold green

See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ANSI_escape_code#SGR for ANSI code details.

Shell Color Prompt configuration functions

Although for basic configuration setting the aforementioned environment variables is fine and continues to work dynamically, in the long term and for a more consistent experience the functions below are recommended and should behave better. (However note that at least until version 1.0 these functions are still subject to change, though we will try to avoid breakage.)

You can see the definitions in /etc/profile.d/bash-color-prompt.sh.

Example usage (in ~/.bashrc):

# this should source bash-color-prompt.sh
source /etc/bashrc

prompt_os_color 107
prompt_highlight 1\;7
prompt_dir_color 33
prompt_container $USER
prompt_git_color 35

Descriptions of the available functions:

prompt_highlight()

(since 0.5)

Sets PROMPT_HIGHLIGHT to bold or the specified "highlighting".

$ prompt_highlighting 2

prompt_color()

(since 0.5)

Sets PROMPT_COLOR to the default color for user or root or the specified color code(s):

$ prompt_color 33

prompt_default_highlight()

(since 0.5)

Sets PROMPT_HIGHLIGHT bold only for GNOME or specified "highlighting".

prompt_separator_color()

(since 0.6)

Sets PROMPT_SEPARATOR_COLOR.

prompt_dir_color()

(since 0.5)

Sets PROMPT_DIR_COLOR or unsets if no argument.

$ prompt_dir_color 44

prompt_default_color()

(since 0.5)

Sets up default coloring (theme)

Specifically it runs prompt_color, prompt_default_highlight, prompt_separator_color, and unsets PROMPT_DIR_COLOR.

prompt_default_format()

(since 0.5)

Sets default format strings for PROMPT_USERHOST, PROMPT_SEPARATOR, PROMPT_DIRECTORY, and empty PROMPT_START & PROMPT_END.

prompt_default()

(since 0.3)

Runs prompt_default_color and prompt_default_format.

prompt_os_color()

(since 0.5)

Sets PROMPT_COLOR to ANSI_COLOR from /etc/os-release.

prompt_separator()

(since 0.6)

Sets PROMPT_SEPARATOR

prompt_host_os()

(since 0.6)

Sets PROMPT_USERHOST to try to identify host OS and version.

prompt_no_userhost()

(since 0.6)

Unsets PROMPT_USERHOST.

prompt_container()

(since 0.5)

Sets PROMPT_CONTAINER if $container is non-empty.

prompt_container_host()

(since 0.6)

Runs prompt_container and prompt_host_os if $container set, otherwise prompt_no_userhost for default HOSTNAME and USER.

prompt_git_color()

(since 0.6)

Sets PROMPT_GIT_COLOR.

prompt_no_color()

(since 0.5)

Unsets PROMPT_COLOR, PROMPT_DIR_COLOR, and PROMPT_GIT_COLOR.

prompt_no_highlight()

(since 0.5)

Unsets PROMPT_HIGHLIGHT.

prompt_plain()

(since 0.5)

Runs prompt_no_color and prompt_no_highlight.

prompt_traditional_format()

(since 0.5)

Sets the old Red Hat prompt format.

prompt_traditional()

(since 0.3)

Runs prompt_plain and prompt_traditional_format.

prompt_reset_traditional_ps1()

(since 0.5)

Completely resets PS1 to the old Red Hat prompt.

To restore bash-color-prompt PS1 one then needs to run prompt_setup_color_ps1.

prompt_setup_color_ps1()

(since 0.5)

This resets PS1 to the default bash-color-prompt.

prompt_default_setup()

(since 0.6)

Sets up default bash-color-prompt settings without any terminal checks.

prompt_default_setup_checked()

(since 0.6)

Activates bash-color-prompt if enabled for terminal in Fedora.

This is run by default in /etc/profile.d/bash-color-prompt.sh if not disabled.

It first checks if TERM ends in "color" or is "linux" or since 0.7 whether COLORTERM is set.

set_ansi()

(since 0.6.2)

User convenience: for usage see the exit code display example below.

Note this uses a subprocess.

Background details on the environment variables

Note their direct use is being deprecated and should not be relied on long-term As far as possible use the above accessor functions.

bash-color-prompt's PS1 has the following general structure: [PROMPT_START]^PROMPT_USERHOST PROMPT_SEPARATOR PROMPT_DIRECTORY [PROMPT_GIT_BRANCH] ^[PROMPT_END]^ (^ means color reset).

PROMPT_START (optional)

Displayed at the start of the prompt.

PROMPT_HIGHLIGHT

Prepended before PROMPT_COLOR after PROMPT_START .

eg PROMPT_HIGHLIGHT=1 makes prompt bold or PROMPT_HIGHLIGHT=7 inverts prompt coloring

PROMPT_USERHOST

Default: PROMPT_USERHOST='\u@\h'

Color defaults to PROMPT_COLOR.

See the PROMPTING section of man bash or Controlling the Prompt in info bash for the available backslash-escaped special characters.

PROMPT_SEPARATOR

Default: PROMPT_SEPARATOR=':'

eg you can change it to '\n' or ' \t\n'

Color is overriden by default by PROMPT_SEPARATOR_COLOR.

PROMPT_DIRECTORY

Default: PROMPT_DIRECTORY='\w'

eg can be changed to '\W'

Defaults to PROMPT_DIR_COLOR if set otherwise PROMPT_COLOR.

PROMPT_END

Displayed at the end of the prompt (before \$).

More examples

Traditional Red Hat prompt

PROMPT_START='['
PROMPT_END=']'
PROMPT_SEPARATOR=' '
PROMPT_DIRECTORY='\W'
PROMPT_COLOR='0'

Equivalent to prompt_traditional

Multiline prompt example

PROMPT_START='\t\n'
PROMPT_COLOR='30;43'
PROMPT_DIR_COLOR='44'
PROMPT_SEPARATOR='\n'

You can also set PS0='\t' say to timestamp the start of commands.

Git branch integration example

function prompt_command {
    ref=$(/usr/bin/git rev-parse --abbrev-ref HEAD 2> /dev/null)
    PROMPT_GIT_BRANCH=${ref:+:$ref}
}
PROMPT_COMMAND=prompt_command

(It is considered better Bash practice to use an array for PROMPT_COMMAND.)

Terminal title

Using bash PROMPT_COMMAND one can also set the terminal title with:

echo -n -e "\e]0;${PROMPT_USERHOST@P}${PROMPT_USERHOST:+:}${PROMPT_DIRECTORY}"

Container support

See prompt_container and prompt_container_host above.

Basic container support can be setup with say:

PROMPT_CONTAINER='⬢'

Show exit code for error in red

PROMPT_END="$(set_ansi 31)"'${?#0}'"$(set_ansi 0)"

Sourcing

Set bash_color_prompt_force (before sourcing /etc/bashrc or bash-color-prompt.sh directly) to turn on bash-color-prompt unconditionally (for an interactive bash shell), otherwise by default it is only setup for a bash shell if PS1 is the fedora or bash default and either $TERM ends in "color" (or is "linux") or since 0.7 if COLORTERM is set.

For example:

if [ -t 0 ]; then
bash_color_prompt_force=1
source /etc/profile.d/bash-color-prompt.sh
fi

can be added to ~/.bashrc to turn on bash-color-prompt "everywhere".

(Before 0.7 the variable was called bash_prompt_color_force.)

Disabling

Set the bash_color_prompt_disable variable non-empty in .bashrc before sourcing /etc/profile.d/*.sh to prevent setting up bash-color-prompt (ie before sourcing /etc/bashrc). (Before 0.7 this variable was called bash_prompt_color_disable.)

Since 0.7, the NO_COLOR environment variable (https://no-color.org/) is also respected, and results in a default monochrome prompt. One can set BASH_PROMPT_USE_COLOR to override this.

Contribute

Please open issues against shell-color-prompt in bugzilla.

shell-color-prompt is distributed under the GPL license version 2 or later.