modify Command prompt

[zoonkai]

I want to modify the command prompt on one of my UNIX boxes....I have done this before, but cannot for the life of my find my notes on it.

I don't care if it changes the prompt on every login or just on root..because I only use root's account on this machine..

Instead of...

#

I want something like

<Machine Name> #

any help would be appreciated
Thanx

Zoonkai

 

[Annihilannic]

Zoonkai,

You do that by redifining the PS1 environment variable, for example:

[tt] PS1=&quot;thebeast # &quot;[/tt]

You might want to add this to your .profile, and perhaps make it more generic, for example:

[tt] PS1=`uname -n`&quot; # &quot;[/tt]

`uname -n` would be replaced with the node name of the machine.

Annihilannic.

 

[AndyBo]

There is an environment variable called &quot;PS1&quot; - This is Prompt String 1, and is the default shell prompt. You should find that, for root, it is currently set to &quot;# &quot;.

To change it for a user, edit their .profile and set PS1 to whatever you want. For example:
[tt]
PS1=&quot;myserver.com # &quot;
export PS1
[/tt]
On a cautionary note, you might want to think about setting up a normal account that you can use for day to day work on the machine. From experience, a mistyped &quot;rm -r /my/directory&quot; can cause havoc... Think along the lines of &quot;rm -r / my/directory&quot; and ponder the fact that you probably won't be told that &quot;my/directory&quot; can't be found until everything else has been wiped off the system... The feeling when you start to think &quot;It shouldn't be taking this long to delete a few files, and why is the hard disk thrashing like mad?&quot; can be quite un-nerving.

It's the kind of mistake you only make once, but it can be a costly one.

Having a non-root user for day to day work is generally considered a Very Good Idea when using Unix.

Hope this helps.

 

[zoonkai]

Thank you both...works great now.....!!!

Andy
I definetely agree with you about being careful using root access. The machine that I'm doing this on is our &quot;dummy&quot; machine..used for writing and testing programs...if i ever goofed up it won't lose anything other than maybe my current project...the important company data is secure on another box.....that's why i wanted to label my command prompt....so in case i was in question...i would always be able to tell which machine i was at just by getting to a command prompt if i'm not already there....

thanx a bunch !!

Donald (Zoonkai) Dixon