Re: truncating the path in the bash prompt?

[Stephane Chazelas]

On Thu, Nov 01, 2007 at 08:01:58AM -0700, Dan Nicolaescu wrote:
> 
> In tcsh  %c can be used to only show the last few directory names in a
> path (also see the ellipsis variable). 
> 
> For example for this directory: 
> 
> /lib/modules/2.6.21-1.3194.fc7/kernel/drivers/char/hw_random/
> 
> the prompt can look like this:
> 
> user@machine:...drivers/char/hw_random> 
> 
> when using: set prompt = "%n@%m:%c03%# "
> 
> Given the tendency of directory hierarchies to get deeper, it is very
> useful to be able to see some more context, so it would be great if
> bash also supported something similar.
> Sure, this can be implemented by using shell commands to set the
> prompt, but it would be much nicer if it was built in.
[...]

With bash, you could probably use the PROMPT_COMMAND special
variable.

With zsh again:

PS1='%n@%m:%4(~:...:)%3~%# '

You can also truncate the path to a specific width, see 
info -f zsh -n 'Prompt Expansion'

-- 
Stéphane