The basic way to set a prompt is by setting the “PS1” variable.
In Linux (the BASH shell, in particular), the default format is:<\/p>\n\n\n\n
export PS1=\"[\\u@\\h \\W]\\$ \"<\/code><\/pre>\n\n\n\nThat will give you a prompt that looks like this (where “dir” is your current directory)<\/p>\n\n\n\n
[username@host dir]$<\/code><\/pre>\n\n\n\nWe can add a date\/timestamp to it by changing the prompt to this:<\/p>\n\n\n\n
export PS1=\"\\D{%F %T} [\\u@\\h \\W]\\$ \"<\/code><\/pre>\n\n\n\nSo, for today (August 21, 2024 at 14:45:00), the prompt would look like this:<\/p>\n\n\n\n
2024-08-21 14:45:00 [user@host ~]$<\/code><\/pre>\n\n\n\nSo, why would I want to set my prompt this way?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\nGenerally, I wouldn’t. I tend to like things pretty clean.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
But, if I’m doing a big upgrade with a lot of steps, it would be nice. Combine that with a terminal emulator that logs everything and you have a pretty decent way to capture “start\/stop” times for individual commands.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
You could even put some sort of token at the front to make the lines easier to grep out of the log. This one would put “[CMD] ” at the front of each line:<\/p>\n\n\n\n
export PS1=\"[CMD] \\D{%F %T} [\\u@\\h \\W]\\$ \"<\/code><\/pre>\n\n\n\nKeep in mind though. This prompt is not “dynamic”. It will only show the time at the instant that the prompt is printed. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The basic way to set a prompt is by setting the “PS1” variable. In Linux (the BASH shell, in particular), the default format is: That will give you a prompt that looks like this (where “dir” is your current directory) … Continue reading