Question

I have this in .bashrc;

PS1=’$’

However, I see this still in terminal:

mas-macbook:some/path mas$

I want

$

Answer 1

PS1 should already have been exported long before you get to your .bashrc file, at least for a login shell. In that case, setting PS1 should simply overwrite the value (not its export status).

One thing to keep in mind is that bash itself does not run your .bashrc file for a login shell. The actual sequence of execution is:

• /etc/profile, if there.
• first of ~/.bash_profile, ~/.bash_login or ~/.profile.

I’m fairly certain that, if you want .bashrc to run for a login shell, it has to be sourced from one of those above.

For example, /etc/profile may call /etc/profile.local or all the scripts in the /etc/profile.d/ directory. Similarly, my .bash_profile calls the following, if they exist:

• /etc/bash.bashrc
• ~/.bashrc

with the following snippet:

if [ -e /etc/bash.bashrc ] ; then     source /etc/bash.bashrc fi if [ -e '${HOME}/.bashrc' ] ; then     source '${HOME}/.bashrc' fi 

When I change PS1 and echo ‘hello‘ in my .bashrc, but comment out the sourcing of it in .bash_profile, the prompt doesn’t get changed (nor the string printed) when I log in. When I uncomment the sourcing, I get both the string printed and the prompt changed when I log in.

To make sure that your .bashrc is called for your login shells, put that echo hello statement just after setting PS1, then log in to check.

If it is being called when you log in, you can execute ‘export -p‘ from your shell to get a list of all the exported variables – make sure PS1 has a ‘declare -x‘ in front of it. If not, just change your .bashrc to export it as well:

export PS1='$' 

If it’s already exported, then something is changing it after your set statement. In that case, you’ll need to actually look at the login execution path to see what’s getting called before it gives you control.