Bug 149473 – Revert to former $PS1 style

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Bug 149473 - Revert to former $PS1 style

Summary:	Revert to former $PS1 style

Status:	CLOSED WONTFIX

Aliases:	None

Product:	Red Hat Enterprise Linux 4
Classification:	Red Hat
Component:	setup (Show other bugs)
Sub Component:
Version:	4.0
Hardware:	All Linux

Priority	medium Severity medium
Target Milestone:	---
Target Release:	---
Assigned To:	Bill Nottingham
QA Contact:	David Lawrence
Docs Contact:

URL:
Whiteboard:
Keywords:	FutureFeature

Depends On:
Blocks:
	Show dependency tree / graph

Reported:	2005-02-23 09:32 EST by Andreas Thienemann
Modified:	2014-03-16 22:52 EDT (History)
CC List:	1 user (show)

See Also:
Fixed In Version:
Doc Type:	Enhancement
Doc Text:
Story Points:	---
Clone Of:
Environment:
Last Closed:	2005-02-24 14:30:44 EST
Type:	---
Regression:	---
Mount Type:	---
Documentation:	---
CRM:
Verified Versions:
Category:	---
oVirt Team:	---
RHEL 7.3 requirements from Atomic Host:
Cloudforms Team:	---

Attachments	(Terms of Use)
Patch reverting back to the former bahaviour (1.00 KB, patch) 2005-02-23 10:20 EST, Andreas Thienemann	no flags	Details \| Diff
Add an attachment (proposed patch, testcase, etc.)

Groups: None (edit)

Description Andreas Thienemann 2005-02-23 09:32:24 EST

Description of problem:
After upgrading to RHEL4, the same "problem" as on FC3 appears:

The PS1 bash-prompt shows the following:
[root@build ~]# 

According to http://cnswww.cns.cwru.edu/~chet/bash/NEWS this is the normal
behaviour.

I would expect the prompt to show the previous look from RHEL3 and former Red
Hat Linux products:
[root@horscht root]#

The Homedir should not be abbreviated by a ~.

I'd like to see RH introduce either a bash patch which restores the former
behaviour or, which might be the more sensible choice, adapt the /etc/bashrc.

Comment 1 Andreas Thienemann 2005-02-23 10:20:24 EST

Created attachment 111339 [details]
Patch reverting back to the former bahaviour

This is basically a rollback of the changes from bash-2.05b to bash-3.0, which
result in the "unwanted" transformation of \W

Comment 2 Tim Waugh 2005-02-23 10:23:07 EST

Can you explain in a bit more detail why you think this change is needed?  Thanks.

Comment 3 Andreas Thienemann 2005-02-23 10:35:12 EST

Well, it is not needed per se as it is "just" a cosmetic issue.

However, the prompt style for Red Hat Products since RHL 3.0.3 (first RHL I
installed) has always been "[root@localhost root]# ".
Having changed this to "[root@horscht ~]# " by an upstream decision may not be
considered important as it is, after all, just an appearance issue.

However, I much preferred the former style and thus would like to see it
restored, as do others, as can be seen on the Fedora Core list
https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-list/2004-December/msg02154.html.

Alex describes it correctly IMHO: It's irritating.
People are used to if for several years.

Comment 4 Tim Waugh 2005-02-23 11:39:38 EST

You *could* achieve what you want like this:

export PROMPT_COMMAND="${PROMPT_COMMAND};"'export PWD_W=${PWD##/*/}'
export PS1='[\u@\h $PWD_W]\$ '

but I'll ask upstream for a better solution.

Comment 5 Tim Waugh 2005-02-24 09:37:23 EST

The better solution is:

export PS1='[\u@\h ${PWD##/*/}]\$ '

/etc/bashrc is owned by the setup package.  Changing component and reassigning.

Comment 6 Bill Nottingham 2005-02-24 14:30:44 EST

I don't think changing the upstream behavior of bash by changing the setup PS1
definition is really worth the effort.

Comment 7 Andreas Thienemann 2005-02-24 16:11:22 EST

I can't follow you.
Changing the setup PS1 defintion to PS1='[\u@\h ${PWD##/*/}]\$ ' does change the
upstream behaviour how?

The aim is not making the upstream developer do "the right thing" but introduce
a sense of continuity with regard to the prompt-style.

Using above PS1 prompt does not even need a patch in bash.

Comment 8 Bill Nottingham 2005-02-24 23:34:10 EST

Sorry; what I'm saying is that I don't think it's worth it to change PSx to work
around bash changes.

Comment 9 Andreas Thienemann 2005-02-25 17:27:22 EST

Okay, I get you now.
However, how do you suggest a consistent looking prompt on the shell can be
achieved (by default, not by changing settings after the installation)?

As I wrote above, people are used to the style they have been using for quite
some years.
Therefore I do think it is diserable to keep the former prompt-style.
Whether this is achieved by patching the shell or by adapting some setup-scripts
is debatable.

I guess, changing the bashrc is the easiest way of reaching this aim.

Or is the consistent look of the prompt not an issue at all?

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