[zeugma]

Damn slashdotters ;)

Ya, /. is a PITA sometimes, but it is occasionally useful. I actually found my bash prompt in a comment on /. quite a while back...

 :) echo $PS1
\w `if [ $? = 0 ]; then echo :\\); else echo :\\(; fi`

What that will do is make your prompt into a smiley :) if the last command was successful (i.e., $? is 0). If it is anything but 0, you see a frowney :(

Pretty cool and useful IMO.

[Senator Bedfellow]

LOL - very clever. But don't go over there today - today's designated lefty trollfest is a giant thread on this NSA thing ;)

[ShadowAce]

does that line go in the user's .bash_profile?

[N3WBI3]

Zeg,

That is a *great* idea! I might implement something like that for the default prompt on my systems at the office..

[ShadowAce]

I've been using a variation of your prompt since we had this discussion 14 years ago. Here's te relevant portion of my .bashrc :

GREEN='\[\033[32m\]'
RED='\[\033[31m\]'
NC='\[\033[37m\]'

PS1="\u@\w \`if [ \$? = 0 ]; then echo ${GREEN}:\\\)${NC}; else echo ${RED}:\\\(${NC}; fi\`"

The above gives me a green smiley if the command is successful, and a red frowney if it is not. Pretty handy.