Is it possible to get bash to display the first letter of each directory in my working path?

Question

For example working in:

/home/stuart/src/project/com/example/package
/usr/lib/python2.6

would appear as:

~/s/p/c/e/package$ 
/u/l/python2.6$

Community · Accepted Answer · 2017-05-23 12:41:43Z

3

Yes, it is possible and has been done here.

CommunityBot

1

answered Apr 15, 2011 at 10:56

Lesmana

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Mat · Accepted Answer · 2011-04-15 10:59:41Z

8

Try this:

export PS1='$(echo $(dirname \w)|sed -e "s;\(/.\)[^/]*;\1;g")/$(basename \w) $ '

answered Apr 15, 2011 at 10:59

Mat

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Great thanks. I've updated it to: export PS1='$(echo $(dirname \w)|sed -e "s;$/\.\?.$[^/]*;\1;g" -e "s;/h/s;~;")/\W\$ ' So that dot dirs keep a "." and a character. I also replace "/h/s" (/home/stuart) with a "~".
– Stuart K
Apr 17, 2011 at 9:19
2

Second update: export PS1='$(echo $(dirname $(echo \w | sed "s;$HOME;~;"))/ |sed -e "s;$/\.\?.$[^/]*;\1;g" -e "s;/h/s;~;" -e "s;\./;;")\W\$ ' Adds some more hacks so that it looks good in the home dir.
– Stuart K
Apr 17, 2011 at 9:33
And now I've discovered there are far too many edge cases for this approach to work the way I want (root dir, in home dir, being below home dir). It's still very elegant though!
– Stuart K
Apr 17, 2011 at 9:42

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Oleh Prypin · Accepted Answer · 2015-12-16 11:02:26Z

1

Here is my go at it, based on Mat's answer. Avoids problems in corner cases such as / and ~.

PS1='`echo "${PWD%/*}" | sed -e "s;\(/.\)[^/]*;\1;g"`/${PWD##*/} \$ '

Replace . with .. to display 2 letters.

answered Dec 16, 2015 at 10:57

Oleh Prypin

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3 Answers 3