I was wondering if there is any name to the leftmost text (after which we type the command) in a Linux terminal.
Like
ubuntu@Ubuntu:~$
Do we have a name for this?
-
2This is just called prompt normally – xji Nov 7 '16 at 20:47
It's called the primary prompt string, set by the shell according to the PS1 environment variable. This is usually set per user basis, for interactive shells only, (usually) defined in ~/.bashrc with the default as \s-\v\$.
On my system:
$ echo "$PS1"
\[\e]0;\u@\h: \w\a\]${debian_chroot:+($debian_chroot)}\u@\h:\W\$
and expanded to:
username@hostname:pwd$
Check the PROMPTING section of man bash to see what each token does.
-
1When someone answers me with this quality, I usually wonder how long will it take for me to be at your depth of knowledge. Thanks :-) – Nabin Nov 6 '16 at 4:54
-
3@NabinKhadka Thank you for your kind comments. I am an absolute amateur, still learning every day from the smarter people around me. Everybody was a beginner at some stage, so keep learning and best wishes!! – heemayl Nov 6 '16 at 5:05
-
-
-
PS1,PS2, andPS4are POSIX.PS3is used by the non-POSIXselectcommand, andbashrecently introduced aPS0prompt to display after reading a command but before actually executing it. – chepner Nov 6 '16 at 14:36
