PS1 under term and shell doesn't match system

Question

I find under both shells and terms in Emacs my prompt does not appear as I would expect based on my $PS1 appears as...

# Shell under Emacs
]0;slackline@583.datascience.work.com: /home/slackline@samba.sheffield.work.comslackline@583 ~ $ echo PS1
\[\033[01;32m\]\u@\h\[\033[01;34m\] \w \$\[\033[00m\]

# Terminal under Emacs
0;slackline@583.datascience.work.com: /home/slackline@samba.sheffield.work.comslackline@583 ~ $ echo PS1
\[\033[01;32m\]\u@\h\[\033[01;34m\] \w \$\[\033[00m\]

# GNOME or xfce4 Terminal 
slackline@583 ~/ $ echo PS1
\[\033[01;32m\]\u@\h\[\033[01;34m\] \w \$\[\033[00m\]

I set $PS1 in ~/.bashrc so that its sourced each time a shell is started (rather than login)...

$ grep PS1 ~/.bashrc
export PS1='\[\033[01;32m\]\u@\h\[\033[01;34m\] \w \$\[\033[00m\] '

I found this thread which suggests its a down to differences between login and non-login shells and whether PS1 is being sourced from /etc/profile or a user-config, and suggests that under Emacs since its non-login its user configs that are used first. Checking /etc/profile to rule it out it has the following...

$ grep PS1 /etc/profile
if [ "$PS1" ]; then
    # The file bash.bashrc already sets the default PS1.
    # PS1='\h:\w\$ '
      PS1='# '
      PS1='$ '

...what is strange to me (if I've understood it correctly) is that \h:\w is commented out in this file and based on the above linked thread shouldn't be being sourced, yet it appears that this is what is being pre-pended to the prompt I would expect to see.

EDIT : This looks like a partial solution although I've given it a whirl and doesn't appear to have worked, will try again though.

EDIT2 : Found a solution to this problem and its down to how PROMPT_COMMAND is set...

if [ -z "$INSIDE_EMACS" ];
    then
    export PROMPT_COMMAND='echo -ne "\033]0;${USER}@${HOSTNAME}: ${PWD}\007"'                       |                                                                                                         
else                                                                                                  
    export PROMPT_COMMAND=''                                                                           
fi

score 2 · Answer 1 · answered Aug 15 '18 at 13:35

2

It looks like $PS1 does match: your echo statements in the first example return identical results. I think the problem is that the escape codes aren't getting processed properly. I use the following in my config:

;; translate control sequences as text is inserted in shell mode
(add-to-list 'comint-output-filter-functions 'ansi-color-process-output)

;; turn on color code support in shell mode
(ansi-color-for-comint-mode-on)

I don't use term, but it should be configurable as well.

answered Aug 15 '18 at 13:35

Tyler

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Thanks for taking the time to look at this @Tyler I'll have a play around with your solution at some point, with the method of removing PROMPT_COMMAND under Emacs Terms/shells I still have colour prompts at present, but your proposal sounds useful to protect against problems in the future. – slackline Aug 15 '18 at 14:37

PS1 under term and shell doesn't match system

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