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How can I configure my .bash_profile to add a blank line after any command output?

2 Answers 2

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You want to adjust the shell prompt; the default shell is bash, and it will happily inject a newline into the prompt by embedding \n in the appropriate variables. (PS1 by default.)

More details at http://www.ibm.com/developerworks/linux/library/l-tip-prompt/ or in the manual page - though that is a much more pleasant reference.

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  • My shell is bash and below is what I currently have: export PS1="\u:\w - " With above if I add "\n" at the end then the new line gets added immediately after the second line hyphen "-" and not after command output. I am looking for something that would add new line after command execution.
    – humanfly
    Feb 6, 2012 at 0:06
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    Try putting the newline at the start of your prompt. :) Feb 6, 2012 at 0:11
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Add the following line at the end of ~/.bash_profile or ~/.bashrc, whichever exists:

PS1="\n$PS1"

This will add a newline before a prompt is printed, which is after control is returned to the shell.

Unless your command prompt contains shell commands or variables (which would get executed/interpreted at the time of variable assignment), this will work. Otherwise, just prepend the \n to your original prompt definition.

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  • In more recent version of OS X this file was renamed to: ~/.profile Aug 2, 2014 at 8:34
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    @MarcusBöhm: Completely different file, see e.g. man bash, section INVOCATION. However, if you've never changes anything, the files I mention may not exist.
    – Daniel Beck
    Aug 2, 2014 at 9:43

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