On Fri, Jul 05, 2013 at 12:50:53AM +0800, Chris Down wrote: > > PS1='\h Hello everybody\n\e[1;35m\]Hi\e[0m\]>'
> You need to properly indicate that the control codes are zero-width > (by using \[ and \]). Without them, this is expected behaviour. > > Better, don't hardcode the escape codes for colours -- it is a naive > assumption to believe that all terminals will do what you expect. Use > `tput' instead. There are two ways of doing this (nobody can agree which way is better). The first way is to put each tput result in a variable, and use the variables inside PS1 so that they are expanded when PS1 is evaluated: red=$(tput setaf 1) normal=$(tput sgr0) PS1='\h Hello everybody\n\[$red\]Hi\[$normal\]> ' export red normal PS1 The second way is to expand the variables at the time PS1 is created: red=$(tput setaf 1) normal=$(tput sgr0) PS1='\h Hello everybody\n\['"$red"'\]Hi\['"$normal"'\]> ' export PS1 I prefer the first one myself, but there is no consensus. I find the first one more readable, both in the code where you define the prompt, and in the result of echo "$PS1" should you ever want to SEE the prompt and understand what it is doing. Others prefer the second because they don't want to lug around all the $red $normal $green $blue etc. variables. See also http://mywiki.wooledge.org/BashFAQ/053
