How to custom display prompt in KornShell to show hostname and current directory? - unix

Question

I am using KornShell (ksh) on Solaris and currently my PS1 env var is:
PS1="${HOSTNAME}:\${PWD} \$ "
And the prompt displays: hostname:/full/path/to/current/directory $
However, I would like it to display: hostname:directory $
In other words, how can I display just the hostname and the name of the current directory, i.e. tmp or ~ or public_html etc etc?

Answer 1

From reading the ksh man page you want
PS1="${HOSTNAME}:\${PWD##*/} \$ "
Tested on default ksh on SunOS 5.8

Answer 2

Okay, a little old and a little late, but this is what I use in Kornshell:
PS1='$(print -n "`logname`#`hostname`:";if [[ "${PWD#$HOME}" != "$PWD" ]] then; print -n "~${PWD#$HOME}"; else; print -n "$PWD";fi;print "\n$ ")'
This makes a prompt that's equivalent to PS1="\u#\h:\w\n$ " in BASH.
For example:
qazwart#mybook:~
$ cd bin
qazwart#mybook:~/bin
$ cd /usr/local/bin
qazwart#mybook:/usr/local/bin
$
I like a two line prompt because I sometimes have very long directory names, and they can take up a lot of the command line. If you want a one line prompt, just leave off the "\n" on the last print statement:
PS1='$(print -n "`logname`#`hostname`:";if [[ "${PWD#$HOME}" != "$PWD" ]] then; print -n "~${PWD#$HOME}"; else; print -n "$PWD";fi;print "$ ")'
That's equivalent to PS1="\u#\h:\w$ " in BASH:
qazwart#mybook:~$ cd bin
qazwart#mybook:~/bin$ cd /usr/local/bin
qazwart#mybook:/usr/local/bin$
It's not quite as easy as setting up a BASH prompt, but you get the idea. Simply write a script for PS1 and Kornshell will execute it.
For Solaris and other Older Versions of Kornshell
I found that the above does not work on Solaris. Instead, you'll have to do it the real hackish way...
In your .profile, make sure that ENV="$HOME/.kshrc"; export ENV
is set. This is probably setup correctly for you.
In your .kshrc file, you'll be doing two things
You'll be defining a function called _cd. This function will change to the directory specified, and then set your PS1 variable based upon your pwd.
You'll be setting up an alias cd to run the _cd function.
This is the relevant part of the .kshrc file:
function _cd {
logname=$(logname) #Or however you can set the login name
machine=$(hostname) #Or however you set your host name
$directory = $1
$pattern = $2 #For "cd foo bar"
#
# First cd to the directory
# We can use "\cd" to evoke the non-alias original version of the cd command
#
if [ "$pattern" ]
then
\cd "$directory" "$pattern"
elif [ "$directory" ]
then
\cd "$directory"
else
\cd
fi
#
# Now that we're in the directory, let's set our prompt
#
$directory=$PWD
shortname=${directory#$HOME} #Possible Subdir of $HOME
if [ "$shortName" = "" ] #This is the HOME directory
then
prompt="~$logname" # Or maybe just "~". Your choice
elif [ "$shortName" = "$directory" ] #Not a subdir of $HOME
then
prompt="$directory"
else
prompt="~$shortName"
fi
PS1="$logname#$hostname:$prompt$ " #You put it together the way you like
}
alias cd="_cd"
This will set your prompt as the equivelent BASH PS1="\u#\h:\w$ ". It isn't pretty, but it works.

Answer 3

ENV=~/.kshrc, and then in your .kshrc:
function _cd {
\cd "$#"
PS1=$(
print -n "$LOGNAME#$HOSTNAME:"
if [[ "${PWD#$HOME}" != "$PWD" ]]; then
print -n "~${PWD#$HOME}"
else
print -n "$PWD"
fi
print "$ "
)
}
alias cd=_cd
cd "$PWD"
Brad

Answer 4

HOST=`hostname`
PS1='$(print -n "[${USER}#${HOST%%.*} ";[[ "$HOME" == "$PWD" ]] && print -n "~" ||([[ "${PWD##*/}" == "" ]] && print -n "/" || print -n "${PWD##*/}");print "]$")'

Answer 5

PS1=`id -un`#`hostname -s`:'$PWD'$

Answer 6

and...
if you work between two shells for most of your effort [ksh and bourne sh]
and desire a directory tracking display on your command line
then PWD can be substituted easily in ksh
and if you use /usr/xpg4/bin/sh for your sh SHELL, it will work there as well

Answer 7

Try this:
PS1="\H:\W"
More information on: How to: Change / Setup bash custom prompt, I know you said ksh, but I am pretty sure it will work.