Re: truncating the path in the bash prompt?

[Dan Nicolaescu]

Stephane Chazelas <Stephane_Chazelas@yahoo.fr> writes:

  > On Thu, Nov 01, 2007 at 08:01:58AM -0700, Dan Nicolaescu wrote:
  > > 
  > > In tcsh  %c can be used to only show the last few directory names in a
  > > path (also see the ellipsis variable). 
  > > 
  > > For example for this directory: 
  > > 
  > > /lib/modules/2.6.21-1.3194.fc7/kernel/drivers/char/hw_random/
  > > 
  > > the prompt can look like this:
  > > 
  > > user@machine:...drivers/char/hw_random> 
  > > 
  > > when using: set prompt = "%n@%m:%c03%# "
  > > 
  > > Given the tendency of directory hierarchies to get deeper, it is very
  > > useful to be able to see some more context, so it would be great if
  > > bash also supported something similar.
  > > Sure, this can be implemented by using shell commands to set the
  > > prompt, but it would be much nicer if it was built in.
  > [...]
  > 
  > With bash, you could probably use the PROMPT_COMMAND special
  > variable.

I am aware of that, and I stated it in the paragraph above. 

The point of this message is to have something that can be used by
default without much hacking by most users.