# zsh prompt, part 2


Every now and then I get the 'prompt-itch' and then I need to tweak my prompt
again :) Of course I'm very happy with the way my 
[prompt was.](/2008/february/20/my_zsh_prompt_setup/index.html)

My idea of a good prompt is to be as *short* as possible and still be
informative about your environment:

> Only tell stuff I'm really interrested in and for the rest
> SHUT THE HELL UP!

So no `date` output in my prompt, If I want to know the time I will type
`date` myself. I'm still thinking about leaving out the current hostname
and current username... but for some reason I've become attached to 
seeing `elektron` (my hostname) on the screen.

But a prompt can always be done better. So first a screenshot with some comments
about my new prompt (btw: *what* a lousy jpg, but I'm in no mood to make
a better one)

<img class="shot" width="100%" src="/images/2008/prompt.jpg" alt="screenie of my new zsh prompt"/>

A few things have changed in this prompt:

 * shorter username, show only the first character. Why do you need more?
 * use `$SSH_TTY` to tell if this is remote login or not, if so print a
   `@`
 * use signal names when the exit code indicates that the prev. command
   received one. So no more `130`, but `-INT`.

# short username and ssh
I will only document the actual changes in this prompt, for the shorter
username I use: `${USER[1]}`, which yields the first character.

For `ssh` I use:

    if [ -z $SSH_TTY ]; then
        ZSSH=
    else
        ZSSH='@ '
    fi

Now the left side of the prompt becomes:

    ZU=${USER[1]}
    PS1=$'$C_BLUE%(1j.$myjobs% $C_OFF .$C_OFF)%B$ZSSH%b%m.%B$ZU%b$C_OFF$C_L_GREEN%#$C_OFF '

 signal names
My right side prompt shows the exit code of the previous command, but of
course only when it is not 0. I've extended this to show the
signals names in case the exit code is larger than 127.

setup the signal names and put them in an array:

    ZSIG=$(kill -l)

And in `precmd()`  we index in the `$ZSIG` array to pinpoint the
correct signal name using the exit code. This is the prepended with 
a `-` to mimic the `kill` command syntax.

    # add the name of the signal if its there
    # must be done here in this function... 
    EX=`print -P %?`
    # EX=$(print -P %?) # does not work...
    if [[ $EX -ge 128 ]]; then
        ((k=$EX-128))	    # calculate the index in ZSIG
        E="-${${(s: :)ZSIG}[$k]}"  # split ZSIG on space and index with $k
    else
        E=$EX
    fi

The complete right side of the prompt then becomes:

    RPSR=$'$C_OFF$C_RED%(0?.$C_OFF. $E)$C_OFF'

The full file can be downloaded [here](/downloads/zprompt-jun-29-2008)