Linux: coloring bash prompt will broke carriage return

Question

When I try to colorize the bash prompt like this:

export PS1="\e[0;31m[\u@\h \W]\$ \e[m "

it breaks the carriage return (instead of going to a new line when line is full, it starts in the same line and erases the input text).

If I remove the color sequence it works fine.
I use Ubuntu 11.10 and terminal (guake has the same bug too).

Answer 1

You must wrap all escape sequences between \[ and \] in order for 'readline' to correctly calculate the prompt's visible length. Without them, 'readline' thinks the prompt is longer than it is, and doesn't know when the text reaches the margin.

PS1="\[\e[;31m\][\u@\h \W]\$ \[\e[m\]"