UNIX for Dummies Questions & Answers

Hello everyone,
i am new to unix and still learning about different commands. Can some one tell me how can i hide my directory name. For instance someone is logged in a directory named [home:/user/myname]$ .
I've seen some people hiding their above path name by just one word or letter like [anything]$ in order to keep their path hidden for security reasons. I also heard from some people that i have to do changes in my .profile file. Can some one help me out with this and tell me how do i do so!
Thank You

If you use (ba)sh, try

export PS1='[\u@\h]$'

But I don't think it's a security feature having to remove the current directory from the shell prompt. It's just inconveniencing yourself when you need to use relative paths and don't know whether your current directory is the one intended.

Hello cbkihong,
Yes I use bash and it worked . Thanks to you ofcourse!

I dont know about you, but I really like to know what directory I am in... and whether I am root or not...

I use this as my root prompt. So I know for a fact when root is logged in and where I am. That is 2 lines on purpose for root... if you were wondering.


PS1="`hostname`-$LOGNAME:\${PWD#*}
# "


For my users, I use this prompt.

PS1="`hostname`:/\${PWD#*}> "

Hi there,
ok i used the command you posted i.e. PS1="`hostname`:/\${PWD#*}> "
But can you tell me how does this work? I mean what is PS1 (i guess it's a variable)?
Why do you have a hash sign after pwd and what about the curly braces? And you are redirecting it with ">".
Can you please elaborate on the above? Thank you

you can type command 'set' to view all command prompts.

PS1 to PS4

PS1 is default shell prompt

PS2 is secondary prompt string. If you type command like ls -l "file* and then press enter. Then you will see this prompt.

PS3 is a selection prompt string and it is used for select loop usually. The prompt lets user know that who need to enter something to reply to the script.

PS4 is used for execution trace. If you have a script and the content is
ls -l
Then you run it as
ksh -x scriptname

Then you will see a symbol before each process for execution trace. Which is useful for troubleshoot any script errors.

About the prompt question,
PS1="`hostname`:/\${PWD#*}> "

`hostname`
I think that you should know the this part.

${PWD#*}
To get the same prompt, then I will type
export PS1=`hostname`':/$PWD >'

">" it doesn't mean redirect because it has been quoted by double quotes

My prompt appears as follows for root:


THIS :

PS1="`hostname`-$LOGNAME:\${PWD#*}
# "

GIVES THIS:

hostname-root:/root
#