I just learned how to customize my Terminal shell to my liking. My latest customization was to change the Terminal prompt. Typically, my prompt looked like:

Computer-Name: User-Name ~

This was just too long and cluttered my screen far too much. I set about to change this. Here are the steps to remove your user name:

  1. Go to your route directory
  2. Find the customizer file named “.bash_profile”. This is a hidden file so it can only be seen by using “$ ls -a”. If it is not there, do not worry, step 3 will both open and create it.
  3. Type: “$ nano .bash_profile”
  4. Type: “export PS1=”\h: \w “
  5. Now type: control + O, return, control + x
  6. Restart your terminal

Your prompt should now look like: Computer-Name: ~

For the cleanest look, use: “export PS1=”\W “

It will render: ~

For a complete list of customizations, see this link: http://www.ibm.com/developerworks/linux/library/l-tip-prompt/

Here’s a way of changing colors in your terminal: http://it.toolbox.com/blogs/lim/how-to-fix-colors-on-mac-osx-terminal-37214

Posted in Developer Tools with Terminal