Re: Log-in prompt question

["Jens B. Jorgensen" <jjorgens@bdsinc.com>]

Kevin Traas wrote:
> 
> > > Can someone tell me how to put a word before the Log-in prompt?
> > > E.g. Mypcname:# or Mypcname:$.  I know there a lot of fancy
> > > things I can do.  Is there a HOWTO I can look?
> > > Thanks in advance,
> > > Jimmy
> >
> > That goes in the /etc/issue file.  You can find the commands in the getty
> > man page.
> 
> I think the original question was worded a bit wrong????  From the
> question, he may have been actually looking for command prompt settings -
> not login prompt.
> 
> Anyway, if so then, to set your command prompt to read "systemname#", put
> the following into your .bash_profile:
> 
> PS1="\\h\\$ "
> 
> Hope this helps,

Or, to be *completely* explicit about all you can do, I quote from the
bash manpage:

PROMPTING
       When  executing  interactively,  bash displays the primary
       prompt PS1 when it is ready to read  a  command,  and  the
       secondary  prompt PS2 when it needs more input to complete
       a command.  Bash allows these prompt strings  to  be  cus­
       tomized by inserting a number of backslash-escaped special
       characters that are decoded as follows:
              \t     the current time in HH:MM:SS format
              \d     the date  in  "Weekday  Month  Date"  format
                     (e.g., "Tue May 26")
              \n     newline
              \s     the  name  of  the shell, the basename of $0
                     (the portion following the final slash)
              \w     the current working directory
              \W     the basename of the current  working  direc­
                     tory
              \u     the username of the current user
              \h     the hostname
              \#     the command number of this command
              \!     the history number of this command
              \$     if  the effective UID is 0, a #, otherwise a
                     $
              \nnn   the character  corresponding  to  the  octal
                     number nnn
              \\     a backslash
              \[     begin a sequence of non-printing characters,
                     which could be used to embed a terminal con­
                     trol sequence into the prompt
              \]     end a sequence of non-printing characters

       The command number and the history number are usually dif­
       ferent: the history number of a command is its position in
       the history list, which may include commands restored from
       the history file (see HISTORY below),  while  the  command
       number  is  the  position in the sequence of commands exe­
       cuted during the current shell session.  After the  string
       is  decoded,  it is expanded via parameter expansion, com­
       mand substitution, arithmetic expansion, and  word  split­
       ting.

-- 
Jens B. Jorgensen
jjorgens@bdsinc.com


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