Color PS1 based on previous command output

Question

I have my current PS1 as follows. The $? output is really useful (second line).

export PS1="\
${PSOn_Blue}${PSBWhite}\t\
${PSColor_Off} \$?\
${PSColor_Off}${PSBGreen} \u\
${PSColor_Off}${PSWhite}@\
${PSColor_Off}${hostcolor}\h\
${PSColor_Off}:\
${PSBGreen}\w\
${PSColor_Off}\$\
 "

It would be even nicer if the return code ($?) would be red on non-zero output.

How can I achieve this?

l0b0 · Accepted Answer · 2013-06-12T12:38:40.657

5

I use this:

BOLD_FORMAT="${BOLD_FORMAT-$(color_enabled && tput bold)}"
ERROR_FORMAT="${ERROR_FORMAT-$(color_enabled && tput setaf 1)}"
RESET_FORMAT="${RESET_FORMAT-$(color_enabled && tput sgr0)}"

PS1='$(exit_code=$?; [ $exit_code -eq 0 ] || printf %s $BOLD_FORMAT $ERROR_FORMAT $exit_code $RESET_FORMAT " ")'

Concatenate that with the rest of your $PS1, but make sure you still use the single quotes, otherwise it won't work, and you should be golden. If you want to display the exit code even if it's zero, simply remove the [ $exit_code -eq 0 ] || bit.

edited Jun 12 '13 at 12:38

answered Jun 12 '13 at 08:07

l0b0

51,350

Thanks! This is really useful. Will look into tput things, haven't seen those before. – Karel Jun 12 '13 at 08:23
tput ensures that it won't produce ugly escape codes if your terminal doesn't support color. – l0b0 Jun 12 '13 at 08:26
I see. I just miss escaping of the nonprintable characters... Do you have that working? – Karel Jun 12 '13 at 11:40
I'm not sure I understand what you mean. – l0b0 Jun 12 '13 at 12:37

score 1 · Answer 2 · answered Jun 12 '13 at 10:55

1

This would show the basename of the working directory (\W) in green or red:

PS1='\[\e[$([[ $? = 0 ]] && printf 32 || printf 31);1m\]\W\[\e[m\] '

answered Jun 12 '13 at 10:55

Lri

5,223

Color PS1 based on previous command output

2 Answers2