Path: utzoo!utgpu!water!watmath!clyde!rutgers!mit-eddie!ll-xn!ames!ucbcad!ucbvax!hplabs!hpda!hpdslab!hpiacla!marki
From: marki@hpiacla.HP.COM (Mark Ikemoto)
Newsgroups: comp.unix.wizards
Subject: Re: Re: How to have PS1 evaluated after each "cd"
Message-ID: <4070008@hpiacla.HP.COM>
Date: 8 Jan 88 04:11:11 GMT
References: <551@leah.Albany.Edu>
Organization: HP Indus. Appl. Center, Sunnyvale, CA
Lines: 32

Russell wrote up that nice summary and, of course, someone like me has
to come along and offer his/her two cent's worth.  Here it is...

One annoyance to me in having the current working directory in
the prompt is that depending on how long the working directory
pathname is in the prompt, the starting point for my command
could be in any position on the screen.  If you changed directories
often or hate your commands to hit the right side of the screen or
don't like zig-zagging your eyes across a screen looking for the
format of a command previously entered, you may want to think about
implementing a two-line prompt.

I alias cd to a set of commands that sets up my show-current-directory
prompt.  Within this set, I also insert terminal-specific control
characters that manipulate the cursor to display a two-line prompt.
So when I cd anywhere, I get a blank line followed by the current
working directory pathname on the next line followed by a line
containing my system's node name, my user name, and C-shell history
number, e.g., 

CWD: /usr/spool/lp/interface
ZEIT:mark:[34]:    ...your command goes here...

If you have access to a color terminal, it's even better since you
can also add terminal control chars, for example, to make your CWD
line a different color from your command line.  In any case, your
command always starts at the same character position on the line no
matter how long the working directory pathname.


Mark