The Bash supports four different prompts:

• PS1 is the usual prompt when interactively entering commands
• PS2 is used, when a command spans multiple lines (e.g. if a string is still open when you press ENTER or after a Backslash)
• PS3 is used for shell menues with select
• PS4 is prepended for execution traces (see Bash Debugging)

The Prompts PS1, PS2 and PS4 support placeholders that are replaced with current information such as the hostname, the username or the working directory (the full list is in the Bash man page and documentation).

An example prompt:

PS1='\u@\h:\w$ '

This prints the username, "@" hostname, a colon, the working directory and a dollar sign (followed by a space).

Example for a colored prompt:

export PS1='\[\033[1;34m\]\u\[\033[0m\]@\[\033[0;32m\]\h\[\033[0m\]:\[\033[1;33m\]\w\[\033[0m\]$ '