Your command line welcomes you with a prompt.
Default OSX terminal may look like this.
![](https://theptrk.files.wordpress.com/2020/01/last-login-fri-jan-10-101300-on-ttys003.png?w=300)
PS1 is the variable used by your shell to determine your command line prompt
RPS1 determines your right hand prompt.
Note, you can always `echo` this variable to see what these are currently set to.
![](https://theptrk.files.wordpress.com/2020/01/last-login-fri-jan-10-163204-on-ttys004.png?w=300)
By default, mine is set to %n@%m %1~ %#
These % (percent) symbol combinations are prompt expansions (docs)
%n
– is the special variable $USERNAME (echo this to check)@
– literally the “@“ sign,%m
– hostname up to the first “.”%1~
– current working directory for “1” ancestor- Additionally you may like..
%~
– current working directory with home aliased to “~”%D
– date in yy-mm-dd (International) format%W
– date in mm-dd-yy (US) format%t
– time in am/pm format%*
– time in 24 hour format
Note, your prompt can even accept emoji’s 🚀
![](https://theptrk.files.wordpress.com/2020/01/last-login-fri-jan-10-162913-on-ttys014.png?w=1024)
How to apply this to every new terminal window
If you are using bash, add your PS1=...
command to your ~/.bash_profile
file.
If you are using zsh, add your PS1=...
command to your ~/.zshrc
file
* emoji’s are not available on all machines, but great on those are.