2

I am customizing my PS1 prompt, specifically the $PWD part which is delimited by /'s

among several things I like having the current directory.
However if the directory is too long I'd like to have beginning...ending

For example, instead of

otherstuff:~/apps/webs/2014/area1/groupa/current:other_stuff $

I'd like to have the first directories and the last two, i.e.

otherstuff:~/apps/webs/.../groups/current:other_stuff $

It should handle when they partially overlap, i.e.

 otherstuff:~/apps/webs/2014:other_stuff $ -> otherstuff:~/apps/webs/2014:other_stuff $

and when they are the same, i.e.

 otherstuff:~/apps/webs/:other_stuff $ -> otherstuff:~/apps/webs/:other_stuff $

I tried various substrings if $PWD using {}, () and {} but can't get the format right.

Update - I used the information in guidos answer (accepted) to put together this:

parse_git_branch () { git branch 2> /dev/null | sed -e '/^[^*]/d' -e 's/* \(.*\)/\1/' } PS1='\033[01;31m\]\t\033[00m\]:' PS1=$PS1'\[\033[01;32m\]\u\033[00m\]:\033[01;34m\]' PS1=$PS1'`pwd | sed "s#\(/[^/]\+/[^/]\+/\).*\(/[^/]\+/[^/]\+\)/\?#\1...\2#g"`' PS1=$PS1'\033[00m\]:\033[01;33m\]$(parse_git_branch)\[\033[00m\]\n\$ '

which yields:

enter image description here

A sad amount of the code is repeated \033[00m\]:'s for the 3 white colon seperator !

Improve this question

2 Answers 2

Reset to default
3

This sed command runs a regex that should be helpful for your task:

 sed 's#\(/[^/]\+/[^/]\+/\).*\(/[^/]\+/[^/]\+\)/\?#\1...\2#g'

Test:

PS1PWD_REGEX='s#\(/[^/]\+/[^/]\+/\).*\(/[^/]\+/[^/]\+\)/\?#\1...\2#g' $ echo "~/apps/webs/2014/" | sed $PS1PWD_REGEX ~/apps/webs/2014/ $ echo "~/apps/webs/chip/mips/2014/" | sed $PS1PWD_REGEX ~/apps/webs/.../mips/2014 $ echo "~/apps/webs/chip/mips/2014" | sed $PS1PWD_REGEX ~/apps/webs/.../mips/2014 $ echo "/apps/webs/chip/mips/clips/2014" | sed $PS1PWD_REGEX /apps/webs/.../clips/2014 $ echo "/" | sed $PS1PWD_REGEX / $ echo "~" | sed $PS1PWD_REGEX ~

You might then setup your profile in the lines:

export PS1='[\u@\h `pwd | sed "s#\(/[^/]\+/[^/]\+/\).*\(/[^/]\+/[^/]\+\)/\?#\1...\2#g"`]\$ '

I myself prefer a multiline prompt which gives plenty of space for long paths on the first line.

Improve this answer
3
  • +1 yeah I go with the carriage return at the end but I am displaying so much other stuff in my PS1 now that even the full dir path is too long! Thanks for this great answer. likely to accept it. upvoted as a minimum. Commented Apr 12, 2014 at 14:26
  • 1
    you welcome; did you try something from here? some awesome stuff (maybe even too much for my eyes): askapache.com/linux/bash-power-prompt.html Commented Apr 12, 2014 at 14:32
  • yup, see my updated answer! Includes git branch! Commented Apr 12, 2014 at 15:02
1

You should just split it and choose the parts you want:

( IFS=/ ; set -- $string while ${1+:} false ; do echo "$1" ; shift done )

To get only the beginning/end:

start_end="$(IFS=/ ; set -- $string ; unset IFS printf '/%s/.../%s' "$1" \ "`shift $(($#-1)) ; echo "$1"`" )"
Improve this answer

You must log in to answer this question.

Start asking to get answers

Find the answer to your question by asking.

Ask question

Explore related questions

See similar questions with these tags.