unixshellenvironment-variablescustomizationksh

Reputation: 10310

How to custom display prompt in KornShell to show hostname and current directory?

I am using KornShell (ksh) on Solaris and currently my PS1 env var is:

PS1="${HOSTNAME}:\${PWD} \$ "

And the prompt displays: hostname:/full/path/to/current/directory $

However, I would like it to display: hostname:directory $

In other words, how can I display just the hostname and the name of the current directory, i.e. tmp or ~ or public_html etc etc?

Upvotes: 14

Answers (8)

Jeffrey Rolland

Reputation: 193

So,

PS1=`id -un`@`hostname -s`:`print $PWD | sed "s,$(print $HOME),~,"`$' '

in ~/.profile should work on all versions of the Korn shell, but there's a catch: the PS1 variable is set at login on ksh and does not get updated with a change directory (cd) command.

You will need to add an entry to ~/.profile along the lines of

chdir ()
{
        \cd ${*:-$HOME} && PS1=`id -un`@`hostname -s`:`print $PWD | sed "s,$(print $HOME),~,"`$' '
}

alias cd=chdir
cd

to get PS1 to update with cd commands (and, obviously, if one should somehow change directories by some other means, PS1 will not update and YA kluge will be necessary).

Upvotes: 0

user8585881

Reputation: 21

PS1=`id -un`@`hostname -s`:'$PWD'$

Upvotes: 1

Zzeon

Reputation: 1

and...

if you work between two shells for most of your effort [ksh and bourne sh] and desire a directory tracking display on your command line then PWD can be substituted easily in ksh and if you use /usr/xpg4/bin/sh for your sh SHELL, it will work there as well

Upvotes: -2

David W.

Reputation: 107040

Okay, a little old and a little late, but this is what I use in Kornshell:

PS1='$(print -n "`logname`@`hostname`:";if [[ "${PWD#$HOME}" != "$PWD" ]] then; print -n "~${PWD#$HOME}"; else; print -n "$PWD";fi;print "\n$ ")'

This makes a prompt that's equivalent to PS1="\u@\h:\w\n$ " in BASH.

For example:

qazwart@mybook:~
$ cd bin
qazwart@mybook:~/bin
$ cd /usr/local/bin
qazwart@mybook:/usr/local/bin
$

I like a two line prompt because I sometimes have very long directory names, and they can take up a lot of the command line. If you want a one line prompt, just leave off the "\n" on the last print statement:

PS1='$(print -n "`logname`@`hostname`:";if [[ "${PWD#$HOME}" != "$PWD" ]] then; print -n "~${PWD#$HOME}"; else; print -n "$PWD";fi;print "$ ")'

That's equivalent to PS1="\u@\h:\w$ " in BASH:

qazwart@mybook:~$ cd bin
qazwart@mybook:~/bin$ cd /usr/local/bin
qazwart@mybook:/usr/local/bin$

It's not quite as easy as setting up a BASH prompt, but you get the idea. Simply write a script for PS1 and Kornshell will execute it.

For Solaris and other Older Versions of Kornshell

I found that the above does not work on Solaris. Instead, you'll have to do it the real hackish way...

In your .profile, make sure that ENV="$HOME/.kshrc"; export ENV is set. This is probably setup correctly for you.
In your .kshrc file, you'll be doing two things
1. You'll be defining a function called _cd. This function will change to the directory specified, and then set your PS1 variable based upon your pwd.
2. You'll be setting up an alias cd to run the _cd function.

This is the relevant part of the .kshrc file:

function _cd {
   logname=$(logname)   #Or however you can set the login name
   machine=$(hostname)  #Or however you set your host name
   $directory = $1
   $pattern = $2        #For "cd foo bar"

   #
   # First cd to the directory
   # We can use "\cd" to evoke the non-alias original version of the cd command
   #
   if [ "$pattern" ]
   then
       \cd "$directory" "$pattern"
   elif [ "$directory" ]
   then
       \cd "$directory"
   else
       \cd
   fi

   #
   # Now that we're in the directory, let's set our prompt
   #

   $directory=$PWD
   shortname=${directory#$HOME}  #Possible Subdir of $HOME

   if [ "$shortName" = "" ]  #This is the HOME directory
   then
        prompt="~$logname"   # Or maybe just "~". Your choice
   elif [ "$shortName" = "$directory" ] #Not a subdir of $HOME
   then
        prompt="$directory"
   else
        prompt="~$shortName"
   fi
   PS1="$logname@$hostname:$prompt$ "  #You put it together the way you like
}

alias cd="_cd"

This will set your prompt as the equivelent BASH PS1="\u@\h:\w$ ". It isn't pretty, but it works.

Upvotes: 14

Robin Hoo

Reputation: 19

HOST=`hostname`
PS1='$(print -n "[${USER}@${HOST%%.*} ";[[ "$HOME" == "$PWD" ]] && print -n "~" ||([[ "${PWD##*/}" == "" ]] && print -n "/" || print -n "${PWD##*/}");print "]$")'

Upvotes: 1

Brad

Reputation: 39

ENV=~/.kshrc, and then in your .kshrc:

function _cd {
  \cd "$@"
  PS1=$(
    print -n "$LOGNAME@$HOSTNAME:"
    if [[ "${PWD#$HOME}" != "$PWD" ]]; then
      print -n "~${PWD#$HOME}"
    else
      print -n "$PWD"
    fi
    print "$ "
  )
}

alias cd=_cd

cd "$PWD"

Brad

Upvotes: 3