Lets face it, the default debian bash prompt is pretty dull whereas distributions like Gentoo have nice colours.
This is very easy to get in all distributions, and it’s one of the first things I do on new installs.
The file you need to edit is ~/.bashrc, and if you want it to apply to all new users, /etc/skel/.bashrc.
Simply add the following lines to the bottom of the file:
//////
eval `dircolors -b`
alias ls=’ls –color=auto’
if [ "`id -u`" -eq 0 ]; then
PS1=’[ 33[01;31m]h [ 33[01;34m]w $ [ 33[00m]‘
else
PS1=’[ 33[01;32m]u@h [ 33[01;34m]w $ [ 33[00m]‘
fi
//////
This will give you a light green prompt for standard users, and red for root. To use different colours, change the numbers in the [01;32m] sections. You will need to logout and login again to see the changes.
