Bash Prompt Setup with Bold Colorized Git Branch

bash_prompt_setup.md

Bash Prompt Setup with Bold Colorized Git Branch

This guide shows you how to configure your Bash prompt on Ubuntu (and derivatives) to display:

• Username@Host in bold green
• Current directory in bold blue
• Git branch in bold yellow

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Prerequisites

• Ubuntu or compatible Linux distribution
• Git installed
• bash-completion package (to source Git’s prompt helper)

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Steps

1. Install bash-completion

sudo apt update
sudo apt install bash-completion

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2. Source Git’s prompt helper

Add this to your ~/.bashrc:

# enable Git branch info
if [ -f /usr/share/git/completion/git-prompt.sh ]; then
  source /usr/share/git/completion/git-prompt.sh
fi

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3. Set up your prompt (PS1)

Append this line to the same ~/.bashrc:

export PS1='\[\e[1;32m\]\u@\h\[\e[0m\]:\[\e[1;34m\]\w\[\e[0m\]\[\e[1;33m\]$(__git_ps1 " (%s)")\[\e[0m\]\$ '

What the codes mean:

• \e[1;32m → bold green (user@host)
• \e[1;34m → bold blue (current directory)
• \e[1;33m → bold yellow (git branch)
• \e[0m → reset

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4. Reload your shell

source ~/.bashrc

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What You’ll See

When you open a terminal, it’ll look like this:

user@device:/path/to/dir (branch-name)$

With each part colored and bold, as defined in the PS1 string.