How can I change my bash prompt to show my working directory?

Question

I can print my current working dir like this

myPrompt$ pwd
/Users/me/myDir

I want my shell to look like this

/Users/me/myDir$ pwd
/Users/me/myDir

Is that possible? How can I do it?

Answer 1

You can use escape sequences in prompt variables.

Put this in your ~/.bashrc:

PS1='\w\$ '

Answer 2

Here's a one-liner for OSX. It appends the prompt you want into the profile file and then reloads the profile.

echo "PS1='\w\$ '" >> ~/.bash_profile; source ~/.bash_profile

On El Capitan you'll want to use

echo "PS1='\w\$ '" >> ~/.profile; source ~/.profile

Answer 3

For some reason '\w\$' didn't work for me but instead I did: export PS1="$(pwd) \$" and it worked.

Answer 4

Looks like an old thread but the steps below worked for me on OS X 10.9.5

• put PS1='\w\$ ' in ~/.profile
• if you made any changes in ~/.bashrc remove them
• close the terminal with cmd+q
• reopen the terminal

Answer 5

For Python and Conda Users:

Add the following line to ~/.bashrc and run source ~/.bashrc after saving it. The following will show conda environment, username, device name, and base of current working directory. Additionally, it is colored cyan.

PS1="\e[0;36m ($CONDA_DEFAULT_ENV) \u@\h \W → \e[m "

Answer 6

My Suggestion

Put this in your ~/.bashrc:

PS1='${debian_chroot:+($debian_chroot)}\[\033[01;32m\]\u@\h\[\033[00m\](\D{%H:%M:%S})\[\033[01;34m\]:$PWD\[\033[00m\]\$ '

This will color line, and will also add time on every line (Time can be useful some time)

Answer 7

Simple solution

Open ~/.bash_profile and add the following content

# \[\e[0m\] resets the color to default color
reset_color='\[\e[0m\]'
#  \[\033[33m\] sets the color to yellow
path_color='\[\033[33m\]'
# \e[0;32m\ sets the color to green
git_clean_color='\[\e[0;32m\]'
# \e[0;31m\ sets the color to red
git_dirty_color='\[\e[0;31m\]'

# determines if the git branch you are on is clean or dirty
git_prompt ()
{
  # Is this a git directory?
  if ! git rev-parse --git-dir > /dev/null 2>&1; then
    return 0
  fi
  # Grab working branch name
  git_branch=$(git branch 2>/dev/null| sed -n '/^\*/s/^\* //p')
  # Clean or dirty branch
  if git diff --quiet 2>/dev/null >&2; then
    git_color="${git_clean_color}"
  else
    git_color="${git_dirty_color}"
  fi
  echo " [$git_color$git_branch${reset_color}]"
}

export PS1="${path_color}\w\[\e[0m\]$(git_prompt)\n"

This should:

1) Prompt the path you're in, in color: path_color.
2) Tell you which branch are you.
3) Color the name of the branch based on the status of the branch with git_clean_color 
for a clean work directory and git_dirty_color for a dirty one.
4) The brackets should stay in the default color you established in your computer.
5) Puts the prompt in the next line for readability.

You can customize the colors with this list

Sophisticated Solution

Another option is to use Git Bash Prompt, install with this. I used the option via Homebrew on Mac OS X.

git_prompt_list_themes to see the themes but I didn't like any of them.

git_prompt_color_samples to see available colors.

git_prompt_make_custom_theme [<Name of base theme>] to create a new custom theme, this should create a .git-prompt-colors.sh file.

subl ~/.git-prompt-colors.sh to open git-prompt-colors.sh and customize:

The .git-prompt-colors.sh file should look like this with my customization

    override_git_prompt_colors() {
      GIT_PROMPT_THEME_NAME="Custom"

      # Clean or dirty branch
      if git diff --quiet 2>/dev/null >&2; then
        GIT_PROMPT_BRANCH="${Green}"
      else
        GIT_PROMPT_BRANCH="${Red}"
      fi
    }

    reload_git_prompt_colors "Custom"

This answer is based on my SO answer which you can see here. Hope this helps, have a great day!