Terminal question

[sidebite]

Im messing around with VMware. While in the terminal it appears as: sidebiteATubuntu:~$
Why are there no brackets? Like: [sidebitATubuntu: ~$]







Thanx

[rcgreen]

Why do you expect to see brackets? My terminal has
no brackets.

[Freston]

Welcome to the forums!

Im messing around with VMware. While in the terminal it appears as: sidebiteATubuntu:~$
Why are there no brackets? Like: [sidebitATubuntu: ~$]

Did you expect there to be brackets?

You can get them there if you really want to, I just wouldn't know why?

edit: ah rcgreen beat me to it

[sidebite]

Than you both for your quick replies. Ive been reading though a Linux book, and all thier examples look like: [mpalmerATlocalhost ~]$

I just feel like I have done something wrong or missed a step.

[sarlacii]

Hi sidebite, and welcome.

Your prompt is a hugely configurable thing. Most flavours of Linux will sport a different prompt, depending on the whim of the developers. Firstly, to identify your shell (which is often the main determinant of your prompt's appearance), you can use something like the following (10 ways to skin a cat in Linux, as ever):

[sarlacii@home ~]$ echo $SHELL
/bin/bash
[sarlacii@home ~]$ ps | grep "$$"
17520 pts/1 00:00:00 bash
[sarlacii@home ~]$ find "/proc/$$/exe"
/proc/17520/exe
[sarlacii@home ~]$ userinfo

Note that certain commands may not work, depending on which shell you are using. In my case, I'm using Bash, as you can see.

Within the shell environment, you can then configure your prompt to display as much, or as little, information as you like, depending on what suits you. A common thing is to display a different prompt for the root user, like colouring the prompt red, to remind you that you are root. You can also, for example, put square brackets around the path displayed in the prompt, or not, as you noticed.

Check out Bash Reference Manual for information on configuring your Bash prompt, if that's what you are using.

Go well!