Time for another thread about using sh(1) as an interactive shell. I thought about this while claining up my configuration file. Did you recently revised yours? Any good tip or convenient function to share? Please share them below! Without dwelling further, here's my *~/.shrc *. Feedback highly appreciated # Source global definitions if [ -f /etc/shrc ]; then . /etc/shrc fi # parse whatever follows in # interactive mode only case "$-" in *i*) #--- general settings --- # 755 file perms umask 022 # no core dumps ulimit -c 0 # initialize terminal eval `tset -m ansi:ansi -m $TERM:\${TERM:-ansi} -s -Q` # don't get fancy if we have a dumb terminal [ $TERM = 'dumb' ] && return 0 # control flow bindings stty hupcl ixon ixoff -parity stty erase "^H" kill "^U" intr "^C" eof "^D" # If job control is enabled, set the suspend character # to (control-z): case $- in *m*) stty susp '^z' ;; esac # colums and tab stops #stty cols 80 tabs -8 #--- shell options --- # vi mode set -o vi # don't overwrite files with “>" set -o noclobber # PS command substitions set -o promptcmds # print pwd when changed set -o cdprint # export variables set -o allexport # filename completions set -o tabcomplete # disable nounset set +u #--- limits (pub unix only) # # files < 512mb # ulimit -f 512000 # # max 250 file descriptors # ulimit -S -n 250 # # max 50 processes # ulimit -S -p 50 # # softlimit 250mb virtual memory # ulimit -S -v 250000 #--- environmental variables --- #- (also set ENV="$HOME/.shrc" inside ~/.profile) # host hup(){ (read pid; kill -HUP $pid) </var/run/$1.pid; } case "$-" in *i*) if /bin/test -z "${HOST}"; then HOST="$(hostname)" fi ;; esac # shell SHELL=/bin/sh # PS1 PS1="`hostname | sed 's/\..*//'`" case `id -u` in 0) PS1="${PS1}:~ # ";; *) PS1="${PS1}:~ $ ";; esac # PS2 PS2='>> ' # history settings if [ -d ~/.history ]; then HISTFILE=~/.history/hist.$(tty | sed 's;.*/;;') trap 'rm -f $HISTFILE' EXIT else HISTFILE=~/.history fi HISTSIZE=1000000 # editline settings EDITRC="$HOME/.editrc" # path if [ `id -u` = 0 ]; then PATH=/usr/pkg/sbin:/usr/sbin:/sbin:$PATH else PATH=/bin:/usr/bin:/usr/X11R7/bin:/usr/pkg/bin:/usr/local/bin PATH=$PATH:/usr/games:/usr/pkg/java/openjdk8/bin:$HOME/.bin fi # pager settings LESS="-ci -P \spacebar\:page ahead b\:page back /\:search ahead \?\:search back h\:help q\:quit" # use most? #if [ -x /usr/pkg/bin/most ]; then # PAGER='/usr/pkg/bin/most -ds'; export PAGER # else # PAGER="less"; export PAGER #fi PAGER=less LESSOPEN="|lesspipe.sh %s" LESSCLOSE="lessclose.sh %s %s" # colored output (other BSDs) CLICOLOR=yes if [ "$TERM" = cons25 ]; then LSCOLORS="AxHxcxdxhxefgxAHahBxbx" else LSCOLORS="hxHxcxdxAxefgxAHahBxbx" fi # encoding LANG="en_US.UTF-8" LC_CTYPE="en_US.UTF-8" CONFIG_CHARSET=UTF-8 # user settings USER=$(id -un) UID=$(id -u) GROUP=$(id -ng $USER) TZ="Europe/Rome" CDPATH=.:$HOME:/usr/pkg MAIL=/var/mail/${LOGNAME} MAILCHECK=1 PAPERSIZE=A4 BLOCKSIZE=1m GZIP=-9 GREP_OPTIONS='-d skip' TERM=xterm-256color EDITOR=vi VISUAL=${EDITOR} COLORTERM=${TERM} XDG_RUNTIME_DIR=/tmp/${LOGNAME} TMPDIR=/tmp/${LOGNAME} BROWSER=lynx NNTPSERVER="news://tilde.pink" CVS_RSH=ssh #--- shell functions --- # read config r() { exec $SHELL $HOME/.shrc } # verbose folder listing dir() { ls -l | awk '{ if ( substr($1,1,1)== "d") {print}}' } # make dir and go to it md() { command mkdir -p $1 && cd $1 } # save to dir stack pushd() { dirname=$1 cd ${dirname:?"Missing directory name."} DIRSTACK="$PWD ${DIRSTACK:-$OLDPWD}" printf "$DIRSTACK" } # change wkrd to top of dir stack popd() { DIRSTACK=${DIRSTACK#* } cd ${DIRSTACK%% *} printf "$PWD" } q () { printf '%s' "$d" | sed -Ee "s/'/'\\\\''/g; 1s/^/'/; \$s/\$/'/" } # change dir interectively # courtesy of @rvp at UnitedBSD ch () { local arg dirs d i # short-circuit if [ $# -eq 0 ] then cd return fi arg="$1" for d in $(printf '%s' "$arg" | sed -Ee 's/[^/]+/&*/g') do test -d "$d" || continue dirs="$dirs $(q $d)" done eval "set -- $dirs" # no match if [ $# -eq 0 ] then printf 1>&2 '%s: %s: no match\n' "$0" "$arg" return 1 fi # single match if [ $# -eq 1 ] then cd "$1" return fi # multiple matches i=0 for d do i=$((i + 1)) printf '%d) %s\n' "$i" "$d" done printf '%s\n? ' '-----' read num # do nothing if no number if [ "$num" = "" ] then return 0 fi # invalid number if [ "$num" -lt 1 -o "$num" -gt $# ] then printf 1>&2 '%s: %s: bad number\n' "$0" "$num" return 1 fi eval "cd \"\${$num}\"" } # show history h() { fc -l 1 | sort | uniq; } # clear buffer empty() { echo $'\e[3J'; } # remove wrkdir, if empty rd() { dir=$PWD cd .. if command rmdir "$dir" 2>/dev/null; then echo 'Removed empty directory:' $dir else cd "$dir" echo 'Directory is not empty:' ls -A fi unset dir } # remove backup files in the wrkdir clean() { find . -name $ -name "*.old" -o -name "*.bak" $ -exec rm :{} \; find . -size 0 -exec rm {} \; } # send SIGKILL stop() { kill -9 "${@:-%%}"; } # show pid pid() { ps -e | grep $@ | cut -d" " -f1; } # move to a dotfile dot() { for file in "$@"; do mv -iv "$file" ."$file"; done } # backup files bck() { for file in "$@"; do cp -iv "$file" "$file".bak; done } # launch tmux tm() { if (( $# )); then tmux has-session -t "$*" && tmux attach -t "$*" || tmux new-session -s "$*" else tmux attach || tmux new-session -s default fi } # export tmux session tmup() { [ -n $TMUX ] && export $(tmux showenv | grep --color=never '^[^-]' | xargs) } #--- aliases --- alias t='task' alias tf='task -f' alias tn='task | head -n 1' alias pu='ps -fu $USER' alias j='jobs' alias 1='fg %1' alias 2='fg %2' alias 3='fg %3' alias m='$PAGER' alias lv='ls -laFo' alias l='ls -l' alias la='ls -aF' alias g='egrep -i' alias lgrep="ls | egrep -i " alias llgrep="ls -l | egrep -i " alias cdl='cd $* && ls' alias cp='cp -ip' alias mv='mv -iv' alias rm='rm -i' alias ls='ls -F' alias df='df -hk' alias du='du -hk' alias rsz='eval $(resize)' alias cls='tput clear' alias sane='stty sane' alias realpath='readlink -f' alias cal='cal -3' alias dos2unix="tr -d '\r'" #--- login scripts (for remote shell) # mailbox notifications if [ -x /usr/bin/biff ]; then biff y 2> /dev/null fi # give a fortune cookie and the current date/time on login [ -x /usr/games/fortune ] && /usr/games/fortune -aes echo '' # display current date echo ''; echo -n 'To days date is: '; date # lauch tmux by default if command -v tmux &> /dev/null && [ -z "$TMUX" ]; then tmux attach -t default || tmux new -s default fi ;; *) ;; esac if(window.hljsLoader && !document.currentScript.parentNode.hasAttribute('data-s9e-livepreview-onupdate')) { window.hljsLoader.highlightBlocks(document.currentScript.parentNode); }

Thanks for sharing. That ch function does look neat, will have to try that. The only one I have that is worth sharing this nice little compressed file extractor function. I cannot tell you where I found it, but I came accross it somewhere on GitHub a little while ago and it has been nice not having to remember all the different tar commands. # ARCHIVE EXTRACTION # usage: ex <file> ex () { if [ -f $1 ] ; then case $1 in *.tar.bz2) tar xjf $1 ;; *.tar.gz) tar xzf $1 ;; *.tar.xz) tar xf $1 ;; *.tar) tar xf $1 ;; *.tar.zst) uzstd $1 ;; *.bz2) bunzip2 $1 ;; *.rar) unrar x $1 ;; *.gz) gunzip $1 ;; *.tbz2) tar xjf $1 ;; *.tgz) tar xzf $1 ;; *.zip) unzip $1 ;; *.Z) uncompress $1 ;; *.7z) 7z x $1 ;; *.deb) ar x $1 ;; *) echo "'$1' cannot be extracted via ex()" ;; esac else echo "'$1' is not a valid file" fi } if(window.hljsLoader && !document.currentScript.parentNode.hasAttribute('data-s9e-livepreview-onupdate')) { window.hljsLoader.highlightBlocks(document.currentScript.parentNode); }

pfr I have a similar script to extract stuff, but having it in shrc is probably more convenient (I tend to miss transferring scripts across systems). Thanks a lot!

Since we're here, my old ~/.tcshrc from my FreeBSD days. File is dated 2016 indeed: umask 002 alias df df -H alias h history 25 alias j jobs -l alias ls ls -FG alias la ls -aF alias lf ls -FA alias ll ls -lAF alias libressl /usr/local/bin/openssl if ( -x /usr/local/bin/vim ) then alias vi vim endif switch ($tty) case "ttyv*": alias precmd /usr/sbin/kbdcontrol -r fast endsw if ($tty =~ ttyv*) then setenv BROWSER w3m else setenv BROWSER uzbl-tabbed setenv EDITOR vim endif bindkey "\e[3~" delete-char bindkey "\e[1~" beginning-of-line if ($?prompt) then set autoexpand set colorcat set filec set ignoreof set autocorrect set nobeep set filec set rmstart set correct = cmd set grey = "%{\033[1;30m%}" set red = "%{\033[1;31m%}" set green = "%{\033[1;32m%}" set yellow = "%{\033[1;33m%}" set blue = "%{\033[1;34m%}" set magenta = "%{\033[1;35m%}" set cyan = "%{\033[1;36m%}" set white = "%{\033[1;37m%}" set end = "%{\033[0m%}" set histfile = "$HOME/.history" set savehist = (5000 merge) set history = (5000 "%h %D-%W-%Y %T %R\n") complete {,un}alias 'p/1/a/' 'p/2/c/' complete {c,push,pop}d 'C/*/d/' complete exec 'p/1/c/' complete man 'C/*/c/' complete {where,which} 'C/*/c/' complete {,un}set 'p/1/s/' complete {,un}setenv 'C/*/e/' complete printenv 'C/*/e/' complete bindkey 'p/1/b/' complete fg 'c/%/j/' complete kill 'c/%/j/' 'c/-/S/' complete chgrp 'p/1/g/' complete chown 'p/1/u/' complete limit 'C/*/l/' complete find 'p/1/d/' 'n/-user/u/' 'n/-group/g/' complete service 'n@*@`ls /etc/rc.d /usr/local/etc/rc.d | sed -e "/:/d"`@' complete pkill 'n@*@`ps -a -x -c -o command="" | sort | uniq`@' complete pkg_delete 'c/-/(i v D n p d f G x X r)/' \ 'n@*@`ls /var/db/pkg`@' complete portmaster 'c/-/(C G H K B b g n t v w f i D d m x P PP)/' \ 'n@*@`ls /var/db/pkg`@' complete portupgrade 'c/-/(A b B c C D e f F i k l L m M n N o O p P PP q r R s S u v w W x y)/' \ 'n@*@`ls /var/db/pkg`@' complete make 'n@*@`make -pn | sed -n -E "/^[#_.\/[:blank:]]+/d; /=/d; s/[[:blank:]]*:.*//gp;"`@' complete git \ 'p/1/(add commit rm status diff push pull)/' \ 'n@diff@`git status -s | sed -n "/^ M/ s,^ M ,,p"`@' \ 'n@add@`git status -s | sed -n "/^??/ s,^?? ,,p"`@' \ 'n@commit@`git status -s | sed -n "/^[A ]/ s,^...,,p" ; echo .`@' \ 'n@push@`git remote`@' complete cd \ 'p/1/d/' complete chown \ 'p/1/u/' complete complete \ 'p/1/X/' complete dd \ 'c/[io]f=/f/ n/*/"(if of ibs obs bs skip seek count)"/=' complete doas \ 'p@1@`sed "s,.*cmd *$[^ ]*$.*,\1," /usr/local/etc/doas.conf`@' complete find \ 'n/-fstype/"(nfs 4.2)"/' 'n/-name/f/' \ 'n/-type/(c b d f p l s)/' \ 'n/-user/u/ n/-group/g/' \ 'n/-exec/c/' 'n/-ok/c/' \ 'n/-cpio/f/' \ 'n/-ncpio/f/' \ 'n/-newer/f/' \ 'c/-/(fstype name perm prune type user nouser group nogroup size inum atime mtime ctime exec \ ok print ls cpio ncpio newer xdev depth daystart follow maxdepth mindepth noleaf version \ anewer cnewer amin cmin mmin true false uid gid ilname iname ipath iregex links lname empty path \ regex used xtype fprint fprint0 fprintf print0 printf not a and o or)/' \ 'n/*/d/' complete gpart \ 'p/1/(add backup bootcode commit create delete destroy modify recover resize restore set show undo unset)/' \ 'n/add/x:-t type [-a alignment] [-b start] [-s size] [-i index] [-l label] -f flags geom/' \ 'n/backup/x:geom/' \ 'n/bootcode/x:[-b bootcode] [-p partcode -i index] [-f flags] geom/' \ 'n/commit/x:geom/' \ 'n/create/x:-s scheme [-n entries] [-f flags] provider/' \ 'n/delete/x:-i index [-f flags] geom/' \ 'n/destroy/x:[-F] [-f flags] geom/' \ 'n/modify/x:-i index [-l label] [-t type] [-f flags] geom/' \ 'n/recover/x:[-f flags] geom/' \ 'n/resize/x:-i index [-a alignment] [-s size] [-f flags] geom/' \ 'n/restore/x:[-lF] [-f flags] provider [...]/' \ 'n/set/x:-a attrib -i index [-f flags] geom/' \ 'n/show/x:[-l | -r] [-p] [geom ...]/' \ 'n/undo/x:geom/' \ 'n/unset/x:-a attrib -i index [-f flags] geom/' complete grep \ 'c/-*A/x:<#_lines_after>/' \ 'c/-*B/x:<#_lines_before>/' \ 'c/--/(extended-regexp fixed-regexp basic-regexp regexp file ignore-case word-regexp line-regexp \ no-messages revert-match version help byte-offset line-number with-filename no-filename quiet silent \ text directories recursive files-without-match files-with-matches count before-context after-context \ context binary unix-byte-offsets)/' \ 'c/-/(A a B b C c d E e F f G H h i L l n q r s U u V v w x)/' \ 'p/1/x:<limited_regular_expression>/ N/-*e/f/' \ 'n/-*e/x:<limited_regular_expression>/' \ 'n/-*f/f/' \ 'n/*/f/' complete herbstclient \ 'p/*/`set cmd="${COMMAND_LINE}x"; \ set cmd=( ${cmd:s,herbstclient,,} ); \ set cmd_nr=${#cmd} ; \ @ cmd_nr-- ; \ herbstclient complete_shell ${cmd_nr} ${COMMAND_LINE:s,herbstclient,,}`/' complete ifconfig \ 'p@1@`ifconfig -l`@' \ 'n/*/(range phase link netmask mtu vlandev vlan metric mediaopt down delete broadcast arp debug)/' \ 'c/%/j/' \ 'n/*/`ps -ax | awk '"'"'{print $1}'"'"'`/' complete kill \ 'c/-/S/' \ 'c/%/j/' \ 'n/*/`ps -ax | awk '"'"'{print $1}'"'"'`/' complete killall \ 'c/-/S/' \ 'c/%/j/' \ 'n/*/`ps -ax | awk '"'"'{print $5}'"'"'`/' complete kldload \ 'n@*@`ls -1 /boot/modules/ /boot/kernel/ | awk -F/ \$NF\ \~\ \".ko\"\ \{sub$\/\.ko\/,\"\",\$NF$\;print\ \$NF\}`@' complete kldunload \ 'n@*@`kldstat | awk \{sub$\/\.ko\/,\"\",\$NF$\;print\ \$NF\} | grep -v Name`@' complete localc \ 'p/*/f:*.{xls,xlsx}/' complete lowriter \ 'p/*/f:*.{doc,docx}/' complete make \ 'p@1@`make -V.ALLTARGETS`@' complete man \ 'C@*@`find ${mandir} -type f -name \*.gz | sed "s,.*/,, ; s,\.[^\.]*\.gz,,"`@' complete mupdf \ "p/*/f:*.pdf}/" complete pdflatex \ 'p/*/f:*.tex/' complete service \ 'c/-/(e l r v)/' \ 'p/1/`service -l`/' \ 'n/*/(start stop reload restart status rcvar onestart onestop)/' complete sysctl \ 'n/*/`sysctl -Na`/' complete tmux \ 'n/*/(attach detach has kill-server kill-session lsc lscm ls lockc locks new refresh rename showmsgs source start suspendc switchc)/' set _task_date="modified.after:2016-01-01" complete task \ 'c/pri:/(L M H)/' \ 'c/project:/`task ${_task_date} _unique project`/' \ 'n/[0-9]*/(annotate edit modify done)/' \ 'p/2-/(project pri due)/:/' \ 'p/1/`echo add list ; task _unique id`/' complete unrar \ 'p/*/f:*.rar/' complete unzip \ 'p/*/f:*.zip/' complete which \ 'C/*/c/' alias _comp_pkgs 'pkg info -q' alias _comp_pkg_info '_comp_pkgs | xargs echo --list-files --pkg-message --comment --dependencies --required-by --size' alias _comp_pkg_install 'sqlite3 /var/db/pkg/repo-FreeBSD.sqlite "select name from packages;"' complete pkg \ 'p/1/(annotate autoremove delete info install iv rquery ri rv rw query search uv ur which)/' \ 'n/info/`_comp_pkg_info`/' \ 'N/info/`_comp_pkgs`/' \ 'n/delete/`_comp_pkgs`/' \ 'n/install/`_comp_pkg_install`/' \ 'n/rv/`pkg rquery "%n" | uniq`/' \ 'n/ri/`pkg rquery "%n" | uniq`/' \ 'n/rw/`pkg rquery "%n" | uniq`/' \ if ($tty =~ ttyv*) then if ( $USER == root ) then set prompt = "\n${blue}%~ ${red}%N@%m: \n>>>${end} " else set prompt = "\n${red}%~ ${blue}%m: \n>>>${end} " endif else if ( $USER == root ) then set prompt = "\n${blue}%~ ${red}%N@%m: \nâ±â±â±${end} " else set prompt = "\n${red}%~ ${green}%N@%m: \nâ±â±â±${end} " endif endif unset grey red green yellow blue magenta cyan white end if (-f ~/.colors) then alias ls 'ls-F' set listflags='ha' set color setenv LS_COLORS `awk '! /^#|^$|\t/ {printf $1"="$2":"}' ~/.colors` endif if ( $?tcsh ) then bindkey "^[Od" backward-word # rxvt bindkey "^[Oc" forward-word # rxvt bindkey "\e[2~" overwrite-mode bindkey "\e[3~" delete-char bindkey "\e[1;5C" forward-word bindkey "\e[1;5D" backward-word bindkey "\e[5~" history-search-backward bindkey "\e[6~" history-search-forward bindkey "^W" backward-delete-word bindkey "\e[3~" delete-char bindkey "\e[1~" beginning-of-line endif endif if(window.hljsLoader && !document.currentScript.parentNode.hasAttribute('data-s9e-livepreview-onupdate')) { window.hljsLoader.highlightBlocks(document.currentScript.parentNode); }

JuvenalUrbino ch function not working for me. What exactly is it supposed to do?

pfr you need to also include the q() function above. Code is from @rvp , as I mentioned in the file. See BSD Tips and Tricks thread

JuvenalUrbino you need to also include the q() function above Cool, that got it working. I was curious about shell functions a while back but then forgot about it. I had planned to turn all my alieses into functions . I just didn't have the time to really delve into it and it was (still is) a little over my head.

JuvenalUrbino So you dont think it really matters? I mean, my alias list is long, but creating functions would use more lines of code. Plus, so far my alias's serve their purpose so no point complicating things.. I suppose. Anyway, I do have a question related to this section: JuvenalUrbino #--- shell options --- # vi mode set -o vi # don't overwrite files with “>" set -o noclobber # PS command substitions set -o promptcmds # print pwd when changed set -o cdprint # export variables set -o allexport # filename completions set -o tabcomplete # disable nounset set +u if(window.hljsLoader && !document.currentScript.parentNode.hasAttribute('data-s9e-livepreview-onupdate')) { window.hljsLoader.highlightBlocks(document.currentScript.parentNode); } Mind explaining what these do? set -o vi vs set -o emacs I have it set to emacs. Why? I dont know.. I initially copied my .shrc from @pin and never gave it another thought. However, I dont use (or know how to use) emacs so should I change it to vi or can I simply set it to use vim ? # don't overwrite files with “>" set -o noclobber if(window.hljsLoader && !document.currentScript.parentNode.hasAttribute('data-s9e-livepreview-onupdate')) { window.hljsLoader.highlightBlocks(document.currentScript.parentNode); } Does this disble the use of writing to files witn > or does it simply add text to the existing file without overwriting what's in there?

~/.shrc tips

JuvenalUrbino

pfr

pfr I had planned to turn all my alieses into functions

I think they serve different purposes. Aliases are often used to replace standard commands for interactive use and are not expanded in non-interactive shells; moreover they can be easily undone with unalias

pfr

JuvenalUrbino
So you dont think it really matters? I mean, my alias list is long, but creating functions would use more lines of code. Plus, so far my alias's serve their purpose so no point complicating things.. I suppose.

Anyway, I do have a question related to this section:

JuvenalUrbino

#--- shell options ---	
        # vi mode
 	set -o vi
 	# don't overwrite files with “>"
 	set -o noclobber
 	# PS command substitions
 	set -o promptcmds
 	# print pwd when changed 
 	set -o cdprint
 	# export variables
 	set -o allexport
 	# filename completions 
 	set -o tabcomplete
 	# disable nounset
 	set +u

Mind explaining what these do?

set -o vi vs set -o emacs
I have it set to emacs. Why? I dont know.. I initially copied my .shrc from @pin and never gave it another thought. However, I dont use (or know how to use) emacs so should I change it to vi or can I simply set it to use vim ?

# don't overwrite files with “>"
set -o noclobber

Does this disble the use of writing to files witn > or does it simply add text to the existing file without overwriting what's in there?

nia

pfr The fine sh(1) manual 😉

   Command Line Editing
     When sh is being used interactively from a terminal, the current command
     and the command history (see fc in the Built-ins section) can be edited
     using emacs-mode or vi-mode command-line editing.  The command ‘set -o
     emacs’ (or -E option) enables emacs-mode editing.  The command ‘set -o
     vi’ (or -V option) enables vi-mode editing and places the current shell
     process into vi insert mode.  (See the Argument List Processing section
     above.)

     The vi-mode uses commands similar to a subset of those described in the
     vi(1) man page.  With vi-mode enabled, sh can be switched between insert
     mode and command mode.  It's similar to vi: pressing the ⟨ESC⟩ key will
     throw you into vi command mode.  Pressing the ⟨return⟩ key while in
     command mode will pass the line to the shell.

     The emacs-mode uses commands similar to a subset available in the emacs
     editor.  With emacs-mode enabled, special keys can be used to modify the
     text in the buffer using the· control key.

     sh uses the editline(3) library.  See editline(7) for a list of the
     possible command bindings, and the default settings in emacs and vi
     modes.

Emacs mode mostly means it works similarly to other shell's defaults on other systems, emacs isn't a modal editor. vim wouldn't be a valid setting.

JuvenalUrbino

pfr Does this disble the use of writing to files witn > or does it simply add text to the existing file without overwriting what's in there?

Attempting to overwrite with '>' wil tell you that the file exists. This prevents unintentional overwriting while redirecting stdout to a file. You may still create files with '>' or append text to existing ones with '>>'.
I set this option tor the very same reason while I also force interactive prompting for confirn before deleting.
I am the clumsy and distracted kind of guy who would accidentallly lose important files. I learned from my mistakes.

JuvenalUrbino

pfr I have it set to emacs. Why? I dont know.. I initially copied my .shrc from @pin and never gave it another thought. However, I dont use (or know how to use) emacs so should I change it to vi or can I simply set it to use vim ?

As nia said, mode affects the way the interactive shell will respond to user's input, for it may have vi or emacs like bindings and behavior. Emacs mode is more intuitive (standard navigation with arrow keys, Delete erases backwards).

This has nothing to do with your editor of choice however and doesn't affect the way the shell parses input and scripts.

ksh93 also provides gmacs mode as a third alternative.

As the sh(1) man page suggests, you can further adjust interactive shell bindings by configuring the editline library in your ~/.editrc (NetBSD doesn't use readline, so a Linux inputrc file is not going to work).

pfr

set -o promptcmds and set -o cdprint dont seem to work for my shell...
I get... bad option

JuvenalUrbino

pfr what shell are you using? Those options are only supported by NetBSD's sh and won't work on FreeBSD's sh, dash, busybox ash. Also, as far as I remember promptcmds was introduced in NetBSD -8, so it won't be recognized on legacy systems. If you're not using command substitution in your PS1/PS2, you may as well avoid using it. cdprint on the other hand comes always in handy.
If you plan on keeping your ~/.shrc or ~/.profile unaltered across systems, for portability you can also quietly test for options to be supported and only enable them in the latter case:

( set -o cdprint 2>/dev/null ) && set -o cdprint
( set -o promptcmds 2>/dev/null ) && set -o promptcmds

pfr

JuvenalUrbino
my bad, I thought you were using ksh

It appears that tabcomplete is the default in ksh. I probably dont need promptcmds but I wouldn't mind having cdprint at least.

pfr

Rather than start a new thread... Can anyone hep me with setting a nicer prompt in ksh?

I'd like the current directory in the prompt. Dont need hostname or username.

Something like ~ $ for home and ~/Downoads $ & /usr/local $

Not sure if it's possible to replace /home/user with ~ ? I'd also still just settle for a function that runs pwd after I cd to another directory.

JuvenalUrbino

pfr Rather than start a new thread... Can anyone hep me with setting a nicer prompt in ksh?

Try with this:

   function _cd
    {
	# change directory
	dir=$1
   	arg=$2
   	if [ "$arg" ]
   	then
       	  \cd "$dir" "$arg"
   	elif [ "$dir" ]
   	then
       	  \cd "$dir"
   	else
       	  \cd
   	fi
	# set prompt
	typeset dir="${PWD:-$(command pwd -L)}"
	dir="${dir#$HOME/}"
	case $dir in
	    "$HOME")
		PS1=$(printf "\033[35m%s\033[00m \033[37m$\033[00m " "\~");;
	     /*)
		PS1=$(printf "\033[35m%s\033[00m \033[37m$\033[00m " "${PWD}");;
	    *)
		PS1=$(printf "\033[35m%s\033[00m \033[37m$\033[00m " "\~/$dir");;
	    esac
    }
    alias cd='_cd'
    eval _cd

I have set the colors of the working directory and the dollar sign to be whatever your terminal assigns to 'white' and 'magenta' respectively. Remember you can escape the alias with a backslash, so type \cd for standard cd

pfr

JuvenalUrbino
Cheers. That works well, except it still print's the full path ie. /home/user rather than ~
Another thing that factors in is that I often use zoxide instead of cd so ideally I would like to have the shell's PS1 recognise the working directory (and print it) regardless of the tool used to change directories.

Perhaps it isn't possible, but I just wondered.

rvp

pfr
EDIT: made function more robust.

My version:

# test:
#
# mkdir $'/tmp/rvp'\'$'s\n"home" dir'
# HOME="/tmp/rvp's
# \"home\" dir/////////////"
#
cd() {
	# set -x				# tron
	command cd -- "$@"

	# realpath(1) not available everywhere so,
	# turn: ///some//path///// -> /some/path
	#       / -> ///			# side-effect :(
	#
	local S="$(dirname "$PWD")/$(basename "$PWD")"
	local R="$(dirname "$HOME")/$(basename "$HOME")"
	S=$(echo "$S" | tr -s /)		# /// -> /
	R=$(echo "$R" | tr -s /)		# /// -> /

	# tack on `/' so /home/davey !~ /home/dave
	#
	if [[ "$S/" == "$R/"* ]]		# ksh(1), bash(1) ver.
	# if echo "$S/" | grep -q -- "^$R/"	# grep(1) ver.
	# if expr "$S/" : "$R/" >/dev/null	# expr(1) ver.
	then	PS1=$(printf '\033[35m%s\033[0m \033[1;37m$\033[0m ' "~${S#$R}")
	else	PS1=$(printf '\033[35m%s\033[0m \033[1;37m$\033[0m ' "$S")
	fi
	# set +x				# troff
}
cd "$PWD"

Shorter if ksh had bash's ${var/pattern/string}:

cd()
{
	command cd -- "$@"
	PS1="${PWD/#$HOME/\~}$ "
}

JuvenalUrbino

pfr Cheers. That works well, except it still print's the full path ie. /home/user rather than ~

Have you aliased cd to _cd? And executed _cd upon startup? On my side it works as expected, on ksh93 (or, to be more precise ksh2020), which I tend to use outside of NetBSD as it is the default system intrerpreter on illumos. Edit: indeed I didn't ask you what sort of ksh implementation are you on; I've never used pdksh and derivatives (oksh, mksh).
Opening a terminal:

~ $ pwd                                                                                            

/home/vincent
~ $ cd Documents
~/Documents $ cd /usr/lib
/usr/lib $ cd ..
/usr $ cd -
/usr/lib
/usr/lib $ cd ~
~ $ cd Pictures/Wallpapers
~/Pictures/Wallpapers $ cd ~/.config/mc
~/.config/mc $

By, the way, you came up with a cool suggestion. I think I'm sticking with this :3

pfr

rvp Here:

cd()
{
	builtin cd "$@"
	if [[ x"$PWD" == x"$HOME"* ]]
	then	PS1="~${PWD#$HOME}$ "
	else	PS1='$PWD$ '
	fi
}

This kind of works better than the one above... at least is recognises both versions of the ch command. Still no tilde replacing /user/dave though

pfr

JuvenalUrbino Have you aliased cd to _cd? And executed _cd upon startup?

I didn't create the alias, but I did try executing _cd which still showed the full path. I'll try again tonight and if it doesn't work I'll post my complete .shrc to see if you can identify the problem.

Got inspired 😉

PS1="$(printf "\033[32m[$(date +%a\ %b\ %d\ %H:%M)]\033[00m") ${USER}@${HOST%%.*}$(printf "\033[33m:\${PWD##/}/\033[00m") $PS1"

rvp

pin \${PWD##/}

Typo?: \${PWD##/} => \${PWD##*/}

rvp I'm not a programmer, got the pieces together from the ksh man page and StackOverflow. It's working, although I've reverted it to the simple prompt I had before.

Would you care to elaborate the difference?

If I change it to what you wrote, I get

[Wed Sep 01 22:43] pin@mybox:pin/ $ cd /usr/pkgsrc
[Wed Sep 01 22:43] pin@mybox:pkgsrc/ $

i.e. not the full path

rvp

pin i.e. not the full path

No, you get the last component of a full path with that, same as basename:

$ echo "${PWD##*/}"
$ basename "$PWD"

Not what you wanted?

${PWD##/} will remove one /, same as ${PWD#/}:

$ pwd
/home/rvp/work
$ echo "${PWD##/}"
home/rvp/work
$ X="/$PWD"
$ echo "$X"
//home/rvp/work
$ echo "${X#/}"
/home/rvp/work
$ echo "${X##/}"
/home/rvp/work
$

rvp Not what you wanted?

Actually, I'm happy with pin@mybox $ but, if I was to use the long one I'd want the full path. You see, I have two pkgsrc trees in my system, so simply printing pkgsrc could cause some issues.

Anyway, would you happen to know how you can make xterm display more than 76 characters and not shifting the line while tab-completing at the shell? Such a long prompt becomes annoying when this happens.
Actually, this happens on other terminals as well on NetBSD but, on Void I can have really long lines and it will display them in their full-lenght.

rvp

pin Anyway, would you happen to know how you can make xterm display more than 76 characters and not shifting the line while tab-completing at the shell? Such a long prompt becomes annoying when this happens.
Actually, this happens on other terminals as well on NetBSD but, on Void I can have really long lines and it will display them in their full-lenght.

I recall ksh shifts long lines horizontally; bash, and NetBSD sh if set -o emacs is set, wrap (and back-up) over multiple lines just fine. But, 76 cols. is odd. Does stty size print the correct vals. for your terminal? Or, is COLUMNS being set anywhere? If COLUMNS is set by the user, shells take that as gospel and no longer update it for window size changes.

JuvenalUrbino

pin Actually, this happens on other terminals as well on NetBSD but, on Void I can have really long lines and it will display them in their full-lenght.

I agree with rvp; something is definitely setting the number of columns to 76 (less than 80, how inconvenient 😆 !). May also be a stty cols setting in your ~/.profile. I don't think xterm has a Xresources options to define the number of columns (outside of the geometry itself)

rvp

pin Actually, I'm happy with pin@mybox $ but, if I was to use the long one I'd want the full path.

For you (not perfect--won't work on FreeBSD):
(Moved here)

rvp For you (not perfect--won't work on FreeBSD):

Thanks, I don't use FreeBSD 😁

Anyway @rvp and @JuvenalUrbino this thing with the shifting lines on the shell...

JuvenalUrbino something is definitely setting the number of columns to 76 (less than 80, how inconvenient 😆 !).

rvp Does stty size print the correct vals. for your terminal?

pin@mybox $ stty size
43 166

rvp Or, is COLUMNS being set anywhere? If COLUMNS is set by the user, shells take that as gospel and no longer update it for window size changes.

The issue is xterms default geometry. I did not set it anywhere since my window manager takes care of it but, internally xterm is still set to 80 columns.
The 76 I mentioned was my mistake as I was using tab-completion, if I write it letter by letter towards the end, it only happens going from column 79 to 80.

Sorry for the noise 😒

JuvenalUrbino

So, I decided to implement the same concept on sh and tcsh