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Date: Tue, 8 Oct 1996 21:07:06 -0500 (CDT)
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From: Richard Cobbe <cobbe@cs.rice.edu>
To: sue@welearn.com.au
Cc: freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG
Subject: Re: It's the little things... 
In-Reply-To: <199610090116.SAA12954@netcom12.netcom.com>
References: <199610090116.SAA12954@netcom12.netcom.com>
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Randall Raemon wrote on 10-8-1996:

> In message <199610082159.HAA24542@mail.zip.com.au> 
> "Sue Blake" writes 

<snip>

> > How can I set the prompt (to username and/or working directory... any 
> > damn thing other than the machine name)? I'm using tcsh for myself 
> > (set up with sysinstall's facility) and the default as root. I've 
> > systematically edited and retried every dot file in my dir and can't
> > make it change. The files in /etc that look relevant are blank except for 
> > comments.

Sorry; didn't catch this until the second go-round.

With tcsh, the prompt can be configured by setting the shell's $prompt
variable.  I have mine set to '[%m (%l):%~]%# ', which has the following
result:

[minbar (ttyp1):~/Mail]>       for normal users

[minbar (ttyp1):/home/cobbe/Mail]#       for root (if you do an su)

(The tty section is useful when I'm using virtual consoles cause I have 6
under Linux and tend to get lost fairly easily.)

Check out the section on the prompt shell variable in tcsh(1) for further
info and lots more % codes.

Good luck,

RIchard