How to change bash prompt

January 03, 2008

Some people have asked me how I changed my bash/terminal prompt from the default prompt to what I have. It’s actually a very simple process.

![Change Terminal Prompt

Step 1]

First, load up Terminal and open up your ~/.bash_profile file. (FYI, be sure to read the difference between .bash_profile and .bashrc.)

![Change Terminal Prompt

Step 2]

Then type the following:

export PS1="\w>: "
export PS2=" > "

There are a lot of possible things you can enter. Here are some of them that work well:

Command	Description	Example
\a	ASCII bell character	–
\d	the current date	Sun Feb 08
\H	hostname	Ginger.local
\h	shortened hostname	Ginger
\u	your username	dave
\w	current working directory	/Applications/Network
\W	basename of the current working directory	Network
\T	current time (12-hour HH:MM:SS format)	01:16:49
\t	current time (HH:MM:SS format)	13:16:49
\@	current time (12-hour AM/PM format)	1:16 PM
\n	new line	–
\	print a backslash	\