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I am in the midst of learning Linux, specifically the BASH Shell. I have been trying to edit the initialization files so that whenever I su into root, my prompt will turn red. I am using the code posted below. I am placing the code into the .bashrc file, but have also tried /etc/profile and .bash_profile. If I manually source the files my prompt will turn red for root only like I want, however, if I issue su without sourcing my prompt remains unchanged?

if [ $EUID -eq 0 ]; then
        PS1='\e[0;31m[\u@\h \W]\$ \e[m' 
else
        PS1='[\u@\h \W]\$ ' 
fi
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1 Answer 1

Reset to default
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su usually doesn't load the new user's profile scripts by default. Use su -l to solve this.

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  • Is there another configuration file in which su reads that I could just add source /etc/profile Commented Sep 16, 2019 at 12:03
  • My workaround for this is to set alias su='su -l' in my user's profile (e. g. ~/.bash_aliases). Commented Sep 16, 2019 at 12:06
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    I actually figured out the ultimate issue. I was in the wrong directory. Using su to change to root still left me in the /home/user directory. I needed to create a .bashrc in the /root directory Commented Sep 16, 2019 at 22:03

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