.. include:: ../header.txt

.. _ps1:

:envvar:`PS1`
===========================

The appearance of the command prompt is determined by the `PS1` environment
variable.  This is often set in the ``~/.bash_profile`` file. It may contain
fixed characters and the following symbols.

.. list-table:: PS1 Symbols
   :widths: 15 85
   :header-rows: 1

   * - Symbol
     - Meaning
   * - \\a 
     - an ASCII bell character (07)
   * - \\d 
     - the date in "Weekday Month Date" format (e.g., "Tue May 26")
   * - \\D{format} 
     -	the date - the format is passed to strftime(3)
   * - \\e 
     - an ASCII escape character (033)
   * - \\h 
     - the hostname up to the first '.'
   * - \\H 
     - the hostname
   * - \\j 
     - the number of jobs currently managed by the shell
   * - \\l
     - the basename of the shell's terminal device name
   * - \\n 
     - newline
   * - \\r 
     - carriage return
   * - \\s 
     - the name of the shell
   * - \\t 
     - the current time in 24-hour HH:MM:SS format
   * - \\T 
     - the current time in 12-hour HH:MM:SS format
   * - \\@ 
     - the current time in 12-hour am/pm format
   * - \\A 
     - the current time in 24-hour HH:MM format
   * - \\u 
     - the username of the current user
   * - \\v 
     - the version of bash (e.g., 2.00)
   * - \\V 
     - the release of bash, version + patch level (e.g., 2.00.0)
   * - \\w 
     - the current working directory, with $HOME abbreviated with a tilde
   * - \\W 
     - the basename of the current working directory, with $HOME abbreviated with a tilde
   * - \\! 
     - the history number of this command
   * - \\# 
     - the command number of this command
   * - \\$ 
     - if the effective UID is 0, a #, otherwise a $
   * - \\nnn 
     - the character corresponding to the octal number nnn
   * - ``\\``
     - a backslash