Characters in PS1 variable

Question

My PS1 variable :

\[\e]0;\u@\h: \w\a\]${debian_chroot:+($debian_chroot)}\u@\h:\w\$

I understand everything except the first part \[\e]0;\u@\h: \w\a\]. What is the purpose of this part? It doesn't seem to affect my prompt. In fact my question could be reduce even more to this part : \e]0;

score 3 · Accepted Answer · edited May 08 '13 at 11:29

3

Escape ]0 (the \e]0 you're interested in) modifies an XTerm title bar. More at this link: http://www.tldp.org/HOWTO/Bash-Prompt-HOWTO/xterm-title-bar-manipulations.html

Everything inside the []:

\[\e]0;\u@\h: \w\a\]

Is marked as a non-printing character, so bash can do the right thing with line wrapping, etc. In this case that means "put the current user@hostname and current working directory in the title bar". The \a is a bell character.

edited May 08 '13 at 11:29

chepner

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answered May 08 '13 at 05:19

Carl Norum

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The link doesn't talk about Escape 0. There is only info for Escape 1 and 2. Why is there a bell character at the end? – Gradient May 08 '13 at 05:32
Yes it does, it's right there in the example. When the bell character is there is a question for the person who wrote that prompt string in the first place. Maybe he likes beeps. – Carl Norum May 08 '13 at 05:48
Sorry, I misread that link myself. The bell character is ascii 7 which is the "end editing title bar" character in this context. – Carl Norum May 08 '13 at 05:54

score 0 · Answer 2 · answered May 08 '13 at 05:39

0

You can also use the escape sequence to color your prompt.

answered May 08 '13 at 05:39

Robert Gomez

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Characters in PS1 variable

2 Answers2