On Thu, 2004-12-09 at 01:40 +0000, Jonathan Andrews wrote: > On Thu, 2004-12-09 at 01:11, Rahul Sundaram wrote: > > Hi > > > > We all know that root's prompt > > > starts with '[root' > > > and ends with ']# ', users' prompt starts with their > > > username and > > > ends with ']$ ' already. I wonder why do you want to > > > "differentiate > > > root/non-root bash prompts" even more? > > > > > > as explained earlier the nature of fedora attracts > > newbies who need to understand that using root always > > is a dangerous practise. even administrators would > > like a more visual? enhancement. > > > > as long as it works, is not annoying and actually > > helpful I dont see any reason why you should complain. > > Some of us more cautious people use terminals with different backgrounds > to identify different computers, so changing the default colour for for > root prompts using ansi would break that setup. My dangerous machine > (one in a rack I have to drive 200 miles to get to) already has a red > background on the xterm, so red text as default would be no text at > all!! Its a minor point, but I suspect other have similar setups.... If > people want to play with colours how about changing the dark blue colour > in 'ls' to one that people can read like cyan, i'm yet to find a > computer I could read that text on yet - Its only the dark blue, but it > would save starting a session with 'unalias ls' every time I login to a > redhat box :-| .... Colors and sounds both seem to get less than a ringing endorsement (for good reasons, IMHO). Likewise with multi-line $PS1. Although I'm personally in favor of leaving this as is, what about something as simple as: PS1="[++ \u@\h \W ++]\$ " # [++ root@foohost tmp ++]# The chief problem with the "less is more" approach is probably that after repeated issuance, the impact is somewhat lessened. I would think almost any prompting system suffers similarly; prompts that are successful at overcoming that factor probably fail usability tests (at least with regard to the "user satisfaction" portion of those tests). The above example, and similar fixes, really only have impact when viewed in contrast with the existing prompt, e.g. an su session launched from a user's normal prompt. In that case, the question becomes: How much better is it to see the slightly longer $PS1, in addition to the normal change of '$' to '#'? When one logs into the console or X as root, on the other hand and this prompt is issued from start to finish of the session -- or normal scrolling processes remove the contrasting, original prompt from view -- my bet would be that the user quickly becomes used to the prompt, and it loses its effectiveness. Sorry to butt in, especially if this particular US$0.02 is redundant. -- Paul W. Frields, RHCE
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