Linux – Show only current directory name (not full path) on bash prompt

bashbashrccommand linelinux

The way my bash prompt is currently configured, it shows the whole path to the current directory. This is annoying when I'm deep inside a directory tree, as the prompt becomes so long that every command wraps into the next line. How do I make it show only the last part of the path?

This is what I have in my .bashrc:

PS1='${debian_chroot:+($debian_chroot)}\[\033[01;32m\]\u@\h\[\033[00m\]:\[\033[01;34m\]\w\[\033[00m\]\$ '

# If this is an xterm set the title to user@host:dir
case "$TERM" in
xterm*|rxvt*)
    PROMPT_COMMAND='echo -ne "\033]0;${USER}@${HOSTNAME}: ${PWD/$HOME/~}\007"'
    ;;
*)
    ;;
esac

Best Answer

Change the \w (lowercase) to \W (uppercase):

PS1='${debian_chroot:+($debian_chroot)}\[\033[01;32m\]\u@\h\[\033[00m\]:\[\033[01;34m\]\W\[\033[00m\]\$ '
                                                                                       ^^
           this one waaaaaay over here ------------------------------------------------+

Have a look at the Bash Prompt HOWTO for lots of fun details. example:

user@host:/usr/local/bin$ echo $PS1
${debian_chroot:+($debian_chroot)}\[\033[01;31m\]\u@\h\[\033[00m\]:\[\033[01;36m\]\w\[\033[00m\]\$ 

user@host:/usr/local/bin$ export PS1='${debian_chroot:+($debian_chroot)}\[\033[01;31m\]\u@\h\[\033[00m\]:\[\033[01;36m\]\W\[\033[00m\]\$ '

user@host:bin$

The PROMPT_COMMAND variable, if set, is a command that gets run before displaying the prompt specified in PS1. In your case, PROMPT_COMMAND runs an echo statement with certain ANSI escape sequences that manipulate the titlebar of an Xterm.

If you suspect your PROMPT_COMMAND is overriding your PS1 prompt, you can unset it and test things out:

$ unset PROMPT_COMMAND

Finally, be sure that you're changing the PS1 definition that actually gets used. Common locations are /etc/bash.bashrc, /etc/profile, ~/.bashrc, ~/.bash_profile, ~/.profile. The system files are generally (but not always) run before the user files.

Related Solutions

Bash prompt: how to have the initials of directory path

Ok, I got curious, so here's one solution:

First, create a function using a slight tweak of William Pursell's answer to the SO question I link in my comment above.
Next, put that in your $PS1 as \$(function_name) in the appropriate place.

As an example:

short_pwd() {
    cwd=$(pwd | perl -F/ -ane 'print join( "/", map { $i++ < @F - 1 ?  substr $_,0,1 : $_ } @F)')
    echo -n $cwd
}
# later in your .bashrc
PS1="\u \$(short_pwd) \$ "

I'm hopeful that someone more skilled in Bash-scripting than I am can suggest ways to clean up the function, but this should give you some idea of how to use the output of another command (or Bash function) in a prompt. See also here: http://www.linux.org/docs/ldp/howto/Bash-Prompt-HOWTO/x279.html

Based on your comment, I looked again and realized that my solution needs to be double quoted. If you single-quote such a function, then it will not function at all.

Linux – Set the terminal prompt in Ubuntu to show only the working directory name instead of its full path

Best guess for default Ubuntu install

Find where your PS1 variable is set and change \w to \W.

You can do an initial check of this method thus:

user@computer:~/full/path/to/directory$ echo $PS1
${debian_chroot:+($debian_chroot)}\[\033[01;32m\]\u@\h\[\033[00m\]:\[\033[01;34m\]\w\[\033[00m\]\$
user@computer:~/full/path/to/directory$ export PS1='${debian_chroot:+($debian_chroot)}\[\033[01;32m\]\u@\h\[\033[00m\]:\[\033[01;34m\]\W\[\033[00m\]\$ '
user@computer:directory$

It is probably being set in your .bashrc. If not, check /etc/bashrc and override the variable there in your .bashrc. You will of course have to do an exec bash or source your .bashrc for changes made there to take effect.

Other setups

There are different variations on how to do this depending on what shell you are using and how it is set up. For example, you might conceivably have your prompt set up like this:

export PS1='$USER@$(hostname):$PWD$ '

In which case you will want to do:

export PS1='$USER@$(hostname):$(basename $PWD)$ '