How do I change the format of the name in Terminal?

Question

I don't know what this is called, can anyone clarify? Is it called the name / hostname. I don't know what you call it.

On Ubuntu my Terminal shows kalima@coolbox:~$

But on OSX my Terminal shows compname:~ kalima$

Is this normal? Is there a way to change it so they're both consistent in format?

Answer 1

That's called your "prompt". You can define the PS1 variable to control it.

Add the following to your ~/.bashrc file:

PS1='\u@\h:\w\$ '

See the bash manual for more details.

Answer 2

You can also edit your ~/.bash_profile if you like having everything in one file.

For example, I have customized my terminal by adding this to my ~/.bash_profile.

    [[ -s ~/.bashrc ]] && source ~/.bashrc

    export CLICOLOR=1
    export LSCOLORS=GxFxCxDxBxegedabagaced
function prompt {
  local BLACK="\[\033[0;30m\]"
  local BLACKBOLD="\[\033[1;30m\]"
  local RED="\[\033[0;31m\]"
  local REDBOLD="\[\033[1;31m\]"
  local GREEN="\[\033[0;32m\]"
  local GREENBOLD="\[\033[1;32m\]"
  local YELLOW="\[\033[0;33m\]"
  local YELLOWBOLD="\[\033[1;33m\]"
  local BLUE="\[\033[0;34m\]"
  local BLUEBOLD="\[\033[1;34m\]"
  local PURPLE="\[\033[0;35m\]"
  local PURPLEBOLD="\[\033[1;35m\]"
  local CYAN="\[\033[0;36m\]"
  local CYANBOLD="\[\033[1;36m\]"
  local WHITE="\[\033[0;37m\]"
  local WHITEBOLD="\[\033[1;37m\]"
  local RESETCOLOR="\[\e[00m\]"

  export PS1="\n$RED\u $PURPLE@ $GREEN\w $RESETCOLOR$GREENBOLD\$(git branch 2> /dev/null)\n $BLUE[\#] → $RESETCOLOR"
  export PS2=" | → $RESETCOLOR"
}

Mine looks something like this: