System Commands

Professor. Gandham Phanikumar

Metallurgical and Materials Engineering
Indian Institute of Technology, Madras
Prompt Strings

(Refer Slide Time: 0:15)

So, here we come to the discussion about the Prompt Strings. And what are the fields that you
can insert as a part of the prompt string and customizing for your needs. So, the context for
prompt string has come already when we were using the bash shell So, there are lot of shells
in the Linux operating system like dash shell, z shell, k shell, and c shell apart from the bash.
E Each of these will have a default configuration for the prompt.
And by recognizing the nature of the prompt, you can actually go on to see if there is any
configuration change that you want to do. There are also other command line utilities such as
Python, which can be run on the command line to try out certain pieces of code before you
put them together in a Jupyter notebook or in a Python script.

So, the prompt for the Python or octave, which is a MATLAB compatible, numerical package
and language on Linux, and then gnuplot, which is a very powerful plotting tool available on
Linux, and sage math, which is a symbolic computing package, which is comparable and
perhaps better than tools like Mathematica or Maple. So, all these languages will have a
command line environment where the prompt can be different. And one can also customize
those.

(Refer Slide Time: 1:50)

There are four bash prompts that are configured. And what you see on the screen when we
open a bash shell is the primary prompt, which usually ends with dollar. And then there is a
secondary prompt, which is shown when we have a multi-line input, we did not close the
codes, and then we need to close it by supplying some more input. So, in such situations, the
secondary prompt will be shown, and that is usually the greater than symbol.

The third prompt string is used when we run a bash command in a select loop, which is part
of the shell scripts that we have explored in the past. And the fourth prompt string is shown
when every command that is executed by the bash is to be displayed on the screen, because
we have used the option set minus x which is to basically make the execution trace so, that it
helps us in debugging the script.
(Refer Slide Time: 2:51)

Now there are certain escape sequences that you could use while configuring the values for
these for prompt strings. So, that what is displayed on the screen can be changed. So, you
could use the time in different formats the current time or current time in 24 hour format with
the seconds also displayed or current time in 12 hour format with the second display. You
could have the name of the shell displayed the hostname either up to the first period, or the
complete hostname.

You could also have the date displayed if you wish the current user's user name, which is also
default in the bash shell and Ubuntu that is displayed. You can have the current directory that
is displayed which is also part of the default for the open to bash. And then you can also have
the command line number so, that you can keep track on how many commands you are
running. And you can go back to the history also.

And you can also use the literal characters to escape the sequence by using a backslash. So,
the default value of the ps1 is what is given at the bottom slash u at slash h colon slash w
slash dollar. So, the meaning would be the user name at the machine name colon, the current
directory followed by dollar symbol if the user is not super user.
(Refer Slide Time: 4:22)

In the case of Python command line, the ps1 and ps2 are defined in the module sys and they
can be modified as a part of your code. And by overriding the string function, you could
actually also make it dynamic. And by default, the Python command line has the command
prompt which is three greater than symbols. Now, let us look at a demo of this customization
in the shell.

(Refer Slide Time: 4:49)

So, the first prompt sting what we have here already you can make out that it is the user name
at the host name which is the machine name ICME colon, and then the tilde is a short form
for the home directory followed by dollar. So, where I am, So, I am at the home directory and
CD tilde will bring me to the home directory. So, tilde is a short form or home directory. So,
the prompt string is already have in the home directory here.

So, let us see what is the value that is given per ps1. And now you see this fairly long string is
there. Some of these which are coming here are actually for the color display, So, you know
that it is displays in green color. So, color displays shown, do not worry about those, come
here and notice what is actually given. So, the user name at the hostname is there, followed
by the current directory and then dollar.

So, I will show you what would be the difference if we reconfigure the ps1 to the four parts
that we have seen just now. ps1 is equal to slash u at slash h colon slash w slash dollar. Now,
you see that the color of the prompt has changed. So, some of these other quotes which I
mentioned here and here the ending so, these kind of things are all basically for color. Other
than that, if you see the display, it is the same text, which means that this is all that actually
matters for us.

So, we can now configure it with some more fields. And let us try that out. Instead of
username and hostname, what I would like to do is slash t. And now you see that the time is
being displayed. So, including seconds it can be displayed as a part of the prompt string. And
instead of t, I would actually use d which gives me the date. So, the date is matching, only the
date part is actually displayed in the prompt.

So, for those who are liking that format can be can choose that way. So, you could also have
the date and time together as part of the prompt string. And you could also have hash to list
what is the number of the command. So, 44th command is currently what is there. So, I put
LS and then the number changes to 45. So, is the next command and the next command.

So, you can see that the number in front of the colon is increasing, which means that this
particular field is enabling us to keep track of how many of the command are we typing in, in
the current instance of the bash. So, of course, if we have messed up the prompt string, and
we would like to revert it back, all that we need to do is to source the bash rc and you get
back the prompt, because the prompt is defined in the bash rc.
So, where is it defined? You can see here. So, in this paragraph, you have the bash prompt
defined and therefore whenever you have any problem, you can just look at this particular
part, make a copy of it. So, that you do not lose it, you can actually comment it out and then
change it to what you want. So, that whenever you log in the prompt is the way that you like.

(Refer Slide Time: 8:52)

Now the second command prompt is here. So, that is just a greater than symbol. So, if you
say like echo hello and I must close the code symbol, I do not close it. So, you now see that
the second prompt has come, which is basically asking me to close the quotation symbol. So,
I now close it and the command is complete. So, I get back the primary prompt. Now I would
like to change the secondary prompt to something else.

And here I can use the field names that we have learned just now. So, I can say, hey, and then
user name close the string. So, now what happens is that when I tried to do the same
command, the prompt would now look very different. So, you see the prompt is saying hey
buddy close the string. And I close it now and now you see that the prompt is back to the
primary prompt the secondary prompt alone we have configured where the user name field is
used here and rest of it is what I like to show. So, you can customize as you like.
Now the ps3 is for the select command. So, let us look at that first of all. So, it does not
display, however, it is already configured. And that is something that you could look at it
here, select x in alpha, beta, gamma; do echo dollar x done. So, now this is the select
command in bash syntax. And I am now supposed to select one of the three options given
alpha, beta gamma, and the values are 123.

And you see the prompt is actually hash question mark. So, I can choose 1, and then it gives
me the value that I have chosen, I can choose 2 it gives me the value I have chosen, and if I
happen to choose something else, it does not allow that. So, I can come out with ctrl c, and I
can customize the ps3. ps3 is equal to I will say choose choose your option as above. So, that
is what I want to display. So, let us go ahead and run this command again. And you see that
the prompt has changed. So, you can customize the ps3 also and come out.

(Refer Slide Time: 11:56)

Now, the ps4 as I mentioned to you is for displaying the command on the screen if we have
put set minus x option for execution trace. So, I will put that option now. So, from now on,
till I put the command set plus x what happens is that every command that I am running will
be first printed out on the screen and then the command will be run. So, you see that plus pwd
and then the command has been done and output is home gphani date.

So, the command is again displayed plus date and then the date command output is coming
up. So, the prompt string for this output is basically plus character. So, we can now change
that ps4 is equal to and then I can give a string I can say now running command. So, I can
now change it that way. So, if I now start typing you can see that the prompt has changed
from plus symbol it has now changed to now run running command colon, which means that
the ps4 has been customized.

So, all the four prompt strings in bash can be customized. Now, what are the other prompt
strings that we came across? Python is one such thing. So, let us see what is the prompt string
in the case of Python, and you can see it is basically three symbols of three greater than
symbols side by side that is the prompt string. So, I come out of that.

(Refer Slide Time: 13:41)

Octave is a tool I mentioned to you, which is a very powerful language with the syntax
compatible with MATLAB. So, that is also available as a command line utility. So, you could
do things that are quite complicated, creating an array from one to 100 creating array with the
hops of 10. And making a plot which came on the other window. So, this is a language and
the prompt further octave seems to be that it is a string octave followed by a colon and then
the number which represents the command line sequence that we are entering.

So, there is another tool called gnuplot and you plot which is also having the command line.
You can see that the prompt is gnuplot and you plot. Sage is a symbolic computational
package is a language very powerful. And it is also available on command line as well as as a
Jupyter notebook. The prompt is sage colon. So, the plot was coming on the other end. So,
quite so, that is about the command prompts and how to customize in bash and also command
prompts in other command line environments that we have seen below.