That PS1
variable is for customizing the display of the shell "prompt". The prompt is the text that appears when the terminal first opens, or at the end of every command (you can repeat the terminal prompt any number of times by repeatedly pressing enter at the terminal with no command).
The PS1 variable appears to be looking at your git
user id and branch to determine your prompt. This can be useful if you're within a git branch because it'll tell you which branch you're on.
If you didn't do this, then probably some program did. If you are having a particular problem with your terminal prompt or want to change it to something else, you can. But asking "does this make sense" is not really answerable: all we can do is ask more questions:
- Where did it come from? A program you installed? A script someone wrote? You?
- Do you use
git
? If not, you may not need this customization.
- Do you dislike the current prompt and want to change it to something else, or are you satisfied with it as it is?
It's all a matter of preference; there is no "correct" or "incorrect" terminal prompt. You could have it display :-)
if you wanted to. It'd be perfectly valid.