The first public release of pprom is now available for download.
pprom (pronounced PEE-prom) is a Perl script that enables you to write your shell prompts in a simple shell-independent syntax, "compiling" prompts into the particular form required by the shell you use.
For example, say you want to set a simple prompt such as this:
user@host ~/path/to/the/current/directory >
To get this prompt in bash, you would have to use this syntax:
\u@\h \w >
In csh, tcsh, or zsh, it would be this:
%n@%m %~ >
The pprom syntax for this prompt would be the same for either shell:
@user @at @host @space @cwd @space @gtYou can also use shell-dependent features, if you wish. For example, the symbol @sigil represents the character # (if root) or % (if non-root in csh) or $ (if non-root in bash), and the symbol @shell represents the name of the shell (e.g., bash or zsh).
pprom includes shell-specific configuration files for bash and csh.