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I can't change de PS1 prompt value of the terminal emulator of Linux Mint 19.2 with Cinnamon. It only works for logins made on the console (F1 to F6).

The last lines of .profile file:

export PS1='my-customized-prompt $' export PSCOPY=$PS1

After restarting Cinnamon (I've tried also restarting the computer): It seems something else, after .profile, is changing the PS1 value, like the terminal emulator or any other bash "feature".

luc@lucmint:~$ echo $PSCOPY my-customized-prompt $ luc@lucmint:~$ echo $PS1 \[\e]0;\u@\h: \w\a\]${debian_chroot:+($debian_chroot)}\[\033[01;32m\]\u@\h\[\033[00m\]:\[\033[01;34m\]\w\[\033[00m\]\$ luc@lucmint:~$

However, when I run bash from command line with "-l" argument or change the user with su command, it works:

luc@lucmint:~$ bash -l my-customized-prompt $logout luc@lucmint:~$ su - luc Password: my-customized-prompt $

What's going on? Who is overriding the PS1 variable when the terminal emulator is open? And how to prevent it?

EDIT:

All hidden files in the home directory:

$ ls -ld ~/.* drwxr-xr-x 30 luc luc 4096 Aug 27 14:44 /home/luc/. drwxr-xr-x 3 root root 4096 Aug 26 14:27 /home/luc/.. -rw------- 1 luc luc 4706 Aug 27 14:42 /home/luc/.bash_history -rw-r--r-- 1 luc luc 220 Aug 26 14:27 /home/luc/.bash_logout -rw-r--r-- 1 luc luc 3771 Aug 27 14:00 /home/luc/.bashrc drwx------ 10 luc luc 4096 Aug 26 16:36 /home/luc/.cache drwxrwxr-x 4 luc luc 4096 Aug 26 15:25 /home/luc/.cinnamon drwxr-xr-x 14 luc luc 4096 Aug 26 16:36 /home/luc/.config -rw-r--r-- 1 luc luc 27 Aug 26 14:36 /home/luc/.dmrc drwx------ 2 luc luc 4096 Aug 26 14:36 /home/luc/.gconf -rw-r--r-- 1 luc luc 112 Aug 26 18:06 /home/luc/.gitconfig drwx------ 3 luc luc 4096 Aug 26 16:36 /home/luc/.gnome drwx------ 3 luc luc 4096 Aug 26 14:36 /home/luc/.gnupg -rw-r--r-- 1 luc luc 245 Aug 26 18:18 /home/luc/.gtkrc-2.0 -rw-r--r-- 1 luc luc 516 Aug 26 14:27 /home/luc/.gtkrc-xfce -rw------- 1 luc luc 5470 Aug 27 14:43 /home/luc/.ICEauthority drwxrwxr-x 2 luc luc 4096 Aug 26 16:33 /home/luc/.icons drwxr-xr-x 4 luc luc 4096 Aug 26 17:53 /home/luc/.java -rw------- 1 luc luc 32 Aug 27 14:20 /home/luc/.lesshst drwx------ 3 luc luc 4096 Aug 26 14:36 /home/luc/.local drwx------ 5 luc luc 4096 Aug 26 15:04 /home/luc/.mozilla drwxr-xr-x 7 luc luc 4096 Aug 26 15:49 /home/luc/.nbi drwxr-xr-x 3 luc luc 4096 Aug 26 15:54 /home/luc/.netbeans drwx------ 3 luc luc 4096 Aug 26 16:36 /home/luc/.pki -rw-r--r-- 1 luc luc 938 Aug 27 14:44 /home/luc/.profile drwx------ 2 luc luc 4096 Aug 26 16:49 /home/luc/.ssh -rw-r--r-- 1 luc luc 0 Aug 26 14:40 /home/luc/.sudo_as_admin_successful drwxrwxr-x 3 luc luc 4096 Aug 26 18:19 /home/luc/.themes -rw-r----- 1 luc luc 5 Aug 27 14:43 /home/luc/.vboxclient-clipboard.pid -rw-r----- 1 luc luc 5 Aug 27 14:43 /home/luc/.vboxclient-display.pid -rw-r----- 1 luc luc 5 Aug 27 14:43 /home/luc/.vboxclient-draganddrop.pid -rw-r----- 1 luc luc 5 Aug 27 14:43 /home/luc/.vboxclient-seamless.pid -rw------- 1 luc luc 8268 Aug 27 14:44 /home/luc/.viminfo -rw------- 1 luc luc 52 Aug 27 14:43 /home/luc/.Xauthority -rw-rw-r-- 1 luc luc 131 Aug 26 18:28 /home/luc/.xinputrc -rw------- 1 luc luc 19039 Aug 27 14:44 /home/luc/.xsession-errors -rw------- 1 luc luc 97892 Aug 27 14:42 /home/luc/.xsession-errors.old
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  • What does ls -ld ~/.* show? Commented Aug 27, 2019 at 17:41
  • Also, PSA: Please don't post images of text Commented Aug 27, 2019 at 17:41
  • 1
    @Wildcard: done. Added info (plus converted screenshots into texts) Commented Aug 27, 2019 at 17:59

1 Answer 1

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Bash reads .profile only from login shells, for other interactive shells it reads .bashrc instead. (Same for /etc/profile and /etc/bash.bashrc). On many systems, including Debian, the default /etc/bash.bashrc sets PS1, so for non-login shells that's what gets used.

Your terminal emulator probably runs the shell as a non-login shell, though at least some can be configured to run a login shell instead. E.g. Gnome terminal should have a "run command as a login shell" checkbox, and if the emulator lets you change the command it invokes, you could use /bin/bash -l (the -l or --login marks a login shell).

If you didn't set PS1 in one of the bashrc files, a shell that was started without PS1 in the environment would end up with the default PS1, giving something like bash-4.4$, so it's probably safest to set PS1 in bashrc.

Also note that if the shell is started as a login shell, it will not read bashrc by itself. That's why the profile files on e.g. Debian do that explicitly.

Related:

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4
  • How can it set the variable PSCOPY at the end of .profile with the value of PS1 also set in .profile (see my test), but later get the value set in .bashrc if bashrc is being sourced at the beginning of .profile? Commented Aug 27, 2019 at 18:05
  • @Luciano, right, if a login shell runs first, it reads .profile, where you export some variables. Those would then be seen by any child processes, including interactive non-login shells. But they, in turn, would run .bashrc (and friends), possibly overriding some of those variables. So PSCOPY may just be inherited from when .profile originally is processed. In any case, that PS1 with the debian_chroot parts looks a lot like what bashrc in Debian sets, so I'd suggest looking through /etc/bash.bashrc and ~/.bashrc. Commented Aug 27, 2019 at 18:28
  • I've just found why it happens and how to fix it, it's the gnome-terminal behavior, it inherits .profile settings loaded once in the current session, as you said. But it can be changed checking the option "run command as a login shell". What about improving your answer adding it? unix.stackexchange.com/a/307999/114939 Commented Aug 27, 2019 at 18:36
  • @Luciano, yep, added Commented Aug 27, 2019 at 18:47

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