bash: How to evaluate PS1, PS2, ...?

Posted by Harry on Stack Overflow See other posts from Stack Overflow or by Harry
Published on 2012-04-08T04:57:03Z Indexed on 2012/04/08 5:29 UTC
Read the original article Hit count: 207

Filed under:

bash

|

evaluate

|

ps1

Is there any way to 'evaluate' PS1, PS2, etc from within a bash script?

Although, I can use alternate means to get all elements of my current PS1, I would really like to be able to reuse its definition instead of using these alternate means.

For example,

=====================================
 PS1 element -->     Alternate means
=====================================
 \u          -->     $USER
 \h          -->     $HOSTNAME
 \w          -->     $PWD
 ...
=====================================

I could very well use the 'alternate means' column in my script, but I don't want to. In my PS1, I, for example, use bold blue color via terminal escape sequences which I'd like to be able to simply reuse by evaluating PS1.

© Stack Overflow or respective owner

Related posts about bash

launching a program from bash causes bash to go to new prompt

as seen on Ask Ubuntu - Search for 'Ask Ubuntu'
When I run a program from the console, e.g. me@box:~$ firefox I expect the console to log error messages (I think this is std out or std err?) and other items from the program, firefox in this case. But today I notice that bash just opens the program and goes to a new prompt, e.g. me@box:~$… >>> More
How to debug a .bash_profile

as seen on Ask Ubuntu - Search for 'Ask Ubuntu'
I was updating my .bash_profile, and unfortunetly I made a few updates and now I am getting: env: bash: No such file or directory env: bash: No such file or directory env: bash: No such file or directory env: bash: No such file or directory env: bash: No such file or directory -bash: tar: command… >>> More
Every command fails with "command not found" after changing .bash_profile?

as seen on Ask Ubuntu - Search for 'Ask Ubuntu'
I was updating my .bash_profile, and unfortunetly I made a few updates and now I am getting: env: bash: No such file or directory env: bash: No such file or directory env: bash: No such file or directory env: bash: No such file or directory env: bash: No such file or directory -bash: tar: command… >>> More
Is there any fundamental difference between piping in mac and linux?

as seen on Super User - Search for 'Super User'
ps -e | grep bash sample output from a linux machine: 1128 pts/14 00:00:00 bash 7491 pts/7 00:00:00 bash 12651 pts/14 00:00:00 bash 16145 pts/2 00:00:00 bash sample output from a mac machine: 58352 ttys000 0:00.09 login -pfl username /bin/bash -c exec -la bash /bin/bash 58353 ttys000… >>> More
why is $0 set to -bash?

as seen on Ask Ubuntu - Search for 'Ask Ubuntu'
First login process name seems to be set to "-bash", but if I subshell then it becomes "bash". for example: root@nowere:~# echo $0 -bash root@nowere:~# bash root@nowere:~# echo $0 bash -bash is causing some scripts to fail, such as . /usr/share/debconf/confmodule exec /usr/share/debconf/frontend… >>> More

Related posts about evaluate

Flash Builder missing fundamental things

as seen on Stack Overflow - Search for 'Stack Overflow'
All of a sudden Flash Builder 4 is missing all kinds of fundamental things and is generating incorrect errors. I've had the same issue yesterday, where I fixed it by downloading a new Flex SDK and importing that into FB. I did this again, but this time it fixed nothing. I don't think it's something… >>> More
Evaluate a vendor laptop before deployment to user?

as seen on Server Fault - Search for 'Server Fault'
I get numerous requests from executives and users for new smaller laptops for travel purposes. Most of my evaluation is based upon whether or not it can run certain applications. Mainly lotus notes, office, and video. Most of the laptops include windows 7 OS, and are fully loaded with ram, a high-end… >>> More
Flex SDK missing fundamental things

as seen on Stack Overflow - Search for 'Stack Overflow'
All of a sudden Flash Builder 4 is missing all kinds of fundamental things and is generating incorrect errors. I've had the same issue yesterday, where I fixed it by downloading a new Flex SDK and importing that into FB. I did this again, but this time it fixed nothing. I don't think it's something… >>> More
Evaluate dynamically constructed JSP at runtime

as seen on Stack Overflow - Search for 'Stack Overflow'
I have a requirement where in the JSP page itself is created by the user and stored in the database. When viewing results we need to render this JSP to the client, evaluating all tags inside this JSP. I am aware that it is doable as OpenCMS and Blogger both implement this functionality. But, I just… >>> More
Boolean Expression Evaluation in Java

as seen on Stack Overflow - Search for 'Stack Overflow'
Hey everyone, Is there a relatively simpler (when compared with writing a parser) way to evaluate boolean expressions in Java? I do not want to use the JEP library. I have a String expression something like: (x 4 || x < 8 && p 6) [ I will replace the variables with values. Is there a… >>> More