Linux: Bash Prompt Setup

Add Date/Time Stamp to Prompt

Here's how to add date/time stamp to your bash prompt. Type this in terminal:

PS1='\u@\H • \D{%Y-%m-%d} • \A • \w\n';

Here's what the escape means:

\u

User.

\H

Host.

\D{%Y-%m-%d}

Date in “yyyy-mm-dd” format.

\A

Hour and minute in 24-hour “hh:mm” format.

\w

Path.

To make it permanent, put the line in ~/.bash_profile.

[see Bash Init, .bashrc .profile .bash_profile]

For basic bash prompt setting and parameters, see man bash, search for PS1. (type h for help.)

ISO Date/Time Format for ls

make ls display datetime stamp in ISO date/time format, like 2015-11-22

alias l='ls -AlF --color --time-style=long-iso'

-A or --almost-all

Do not list current directory . and parent directory ...

-F or --classify

Append indicator (one of {/, ->, *, =, |}) to entries.

-l

Use a long listing format. That is, display perm, owner, group, date, etc. [see Linux: File Permissions]

What the indicator mean:

/

Directory

->

Symbolic link

*

Executable

=

Unix domain socket

|

Named pipe

Ignore Duplicates in History

# don't save duplicate lines or lines starting with space
HISTCONTROL=ignoreboth