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$

lesmana · Answer 1 · 2011-04-15 10:56:09Z

up vote 2 down vote accepted

Yes, it is possible and has been done here.

answered Apr 15 '11 at 10:56

lesmana
1,8001514

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Mat · Answer 2 · 2011-04-15 10:59:41Z

up vote 4 down vote

Try this:

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

answered Apr 15 '11 at 10:59

Mat
1,57129

	+1 very elegant and works great (Ubuntu) – Linker3000 Apr 15 '11 at 12:09
	Great thanks. I've updated it to: `export PS1='$(echo $(dirname \w)\|sed -e "s;$/\.\?.$[^/]*;\1;g" -e "s;/h/s;~;")/\W\$ '` So that dot dirs keep a "." and a character. I also replace "/h/s" (/home/stuart) with a "~". – Stuart K Apr 17 '11 at 9:19
	Second update: `export PS1='$(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 '11 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 '11 at 9:42

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2 Answers