www.nico.schottelius.org/blog/my-bash-and-zsh-prompt.mdwn

[[!meta title="My Bash and Zsh prompt"]]

This article is for those who wonder how my very simple, but helpful prompt
in the shell is created and to learn the motivation behind it.

## How it looks like

[[!img bash-zsh-prompt-screenshot-20111125.png alt="Bash/Zsh Prompt"]]

## How it is created

Bash:

    PS1='[\t] \[\033[1m\]\h\[\033[0m\]:\W\$ '

Zsh:

    PS1="[%T] %B%m%b:%c%# "

## Motivation

* I need the hostname to know on which box I am working
* Time is helpful for copy & paste in logs (and to not waste space with ***xclock***)
* Short directory name (\W, %c) is helpful, long paths make the prompt 
unusable and I usually know which tree I am in (if not: pwd helps)
* No need for **username@** like most distros do: If I am a user,
I am ***nico*** (***$*** in bash, ***%*** in zsh). Otherwise I am root (***#***).

[[!tag config sysadmin unix]]