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I want to configure my prompt (PS1) in two lines. At the end of first line I want to fill all the blank space (from end of line to right hand side border of terminal) with a line (like this: _______ )

How can I do that?

currently my prompt is:

export PS1="$(echo "\033[37mroot@\033[34m`hostname`:\033[31m\${PWD}# \033[0m")"

which prints:

root@myhost:/export/home/myid#

I want it to be:

root@myhost:/export/home/myid____________________________________________
#

later on I plan to add more things after PWD.

systems is solaris 10, shell is eksh

5.10 Generic_144488-17 sun4v sparc SUNW
#eksh --version
  version         sh (AT&T Research) 93t+ 2009-05-01

I have found something here, but it is not working. line_Across_terminal

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  • I'm not sure I understand your problem. Can't you just add the string you want after the ${PWD}? Commented Sep 9, 2016 at 17:28
  • well how would i know the length of the string?? when terminal size changes, it should change. Commented Sep 9, 2016 at 17:37
  • wiki.bash-hackers.org/snipplets/print_horizontal_line but this is not working.... :( Commented Sep 9, 2016 at 17:39
  • I would think you could use PS2 to have the '#', so no need for a \n in PS1. As for a variable sized line to fill out your terminal, I think you might need a function that would be able to determine the size of the text and then add the line based on the current terminal size. I don't know what you would do though to adjust that when the terminal is resized. Commented Sep 9, 2016 at 19:46

1 Answer 1

Reset to default
1

For ksh93 (like your eksh apparently and /usr/bin/ksh on Solaris 11):

LOGNAME=$(logname)
HOSTNAME=$(hostname)

PS1='$(printf "\e[37m%s:\e[34m%s\e[4m%*s\e[m\n# " \
  "$LOGNAME@$HOSTNAME" "$PWD" \
  "COLUMNS - ${#LOGNAME} - ${#HOSTNAME} - ${#PWD} - 2")'

ksh88 (like /usr/bin/ksh on Solaris 10) doesn't have $COLUMNS, and doesn't expand command substitutions in $PS1 (though it does parameter expansion), but you could do something like:

LOGNAME=$(logname)
HOSTNAME=$(hostname)
get_COLUMNS() {
  COLUMNS=$(stty -a)
  COLUMNS=${COLUMNS#*columns = }
  COLUMNS=${COLUMNS%%;*}
}
get_COLUMNS
trap get_COLUMNS WINCH
ESC=$(printf '\33')
s=
while ((${#s}<300)); do
  pad[${#s}]=$s
  s="$s "
done
PS1="$ESC[37m\$LOGNAME@\$HOSTNAME:$ESC[34m\$PWD$ESC[4m\
"'${pad[COLUMNS - ${#LOGNAME} - ${#HOSTNAME} - ${#PWD} - 2]}'"$ESC[m
# "

(that one should also work with ksh93 and bash. First one tested successfully with /usr/bin/ksh on Solaris 11 (93u 2011-02-08) and on Debian (93u+ 2012-08-01) and should work with 93t+ 2009-05-01 as well. Second one tested successfully with /usr/bin/ksh (M-11/16/88i) and /usr/dt/bin/dtksh (93d) on Solaris 10)

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  • produces this:... # LOGNAME=$(logname);HOSTNAME=$(hostname);PS1='$(printf "\e[37m%s:\e[34m%s\e[4m%*s\e[m\n# " "$LOGNAME@$HOSTNAME" "$PWD" "COLUMNS - ${#LOGNAME} - ${#HOSTNAME} - ${#PWD} - 2")' $(printf \e[37m%s:\e[34m%s\e[4m%*s\e[m\n# myid@host /export/home/myid COLUMNS - 6 - 10 - 19 - 2) $(printf \e[37m%s:\e[34m%s\e[4m%*s\e[m\n# myid@host /export/home/myid COLUMNS - 6 - 10 - 19 - 2) Commented Sep 9, 2016 at 22:34
  • 1
    @rajeev, that's ksh88 (like /usr/bin/ksh on Solaris 10) behaviour you're showing. ksh93 does expand command substitution in $PS1. Even the 20 year old one in /usr/dt/bin/dtksh does (though you'd need to replace \e with \33 there and it doesn't set $COLUMNS by itself). Commented Sep 9, 2016 at 23:05
  • I am having: 5.10 Generic_144488-17 sun4v sparc SUNW #eksh --version version sh (AT&T Research) 93t+ 2009-05-01 Commented Sep 9, 2016 at 23:07
  • also when i run it from a script, i get nothing. so when i run from command prompt i get these errors. Commented Sep 9, 2016 at 23:08
  • 1
    @rajeev, setting PS1 in a script has no effect, $PS1 is to set the prompt of an interactive shell. What you can do is put that code in a file and source it from your interactive shell like . ./that-file. I've added a ksh88 version. Commented Sep 9, 2016 at 23:26

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