PS1 env variable does not work on mac

Question

I have a script(not written by myself) which shows the git branch/svn branch in my command prompt. Does anyone know why this would not work on mac? It works perfectly in linux.

From https://github.com/xumingming/dotfiles/blob/master/.ps1:

# Display ps1 with colorful pwd and git status
# Acording to Jimmyxu .bashrc
# Modified by Ranmocy
# --

if type -P tput &>/dev/null && tput setaf 1 &>/dev/null; then
    color_prompt=yes
else
    color_prompt=
fi

__repo () {
    branch=$(type __git_ps1 &>/dev/null && __git_ps1 | sed -e "s/^ (//" -e "s/)$//")
    if [ "$branch" != "" ]; then
        vcs=git
    else
        branch=$(type -P hg &>/dev/null && hg branch 2>/dev/null)
        if [ "$branch" != "" ]; then
            vcs=hg
        elif [ -e .bzr ]; then
            vcs=bzr
        elif [ -e .svn ]; then
            vcs=svn
        else
            vcs=
        fi
    fi
    if [ "$vcs" != "" ]; then
        if [ "$branch" != "" ]; then
            repo=$vcs:$branch
        else
            repo=$vcs
        fi
        echo -n "($repo)"
    fi
    return 0
}

if [ "$color_prompt" = yes ]; then
# PS1='\[\e[01;32m\]\u@\h\[\e[00m\]:\[\e[01;34m\]\w\[\e[33;40m\]$(__repo)\[\e[00m\]\$ '
    PS1='\[\e[01;32m\]\u\[\e[00m\]:\[\e[01;34m\]\W\[\e[33m\]$(__repo)\[\e[00m\]\$ '
else
    PS1='\u@\h:\w$(__repo)\$ '
fi
unset color_prompt

case "$TERM" in
xterm*|rxvt*)
  PS1="\[\e]0;\W\a\]$PS1"
  ;;
*)
  ;;
esac

@Alain, I'm going to go out on a limb and suggest it's "How do I get it working on Mac?" — blahdiblah, May 03 '12 at 16:09
@blahdiblah Hmm, the editor suggests that it's "Why doesn't this work on Mac?" — Alain, May 03 '12 at 16:12

score 21 · Accepted Answer · answered May 03 '12 at 16:10

21

Mac OS X installations of Git don't have __git_ps1 included.

Use:

alias __git_ps1="git branch 2>/dev/null | grep '*' | sed 's/* \(.*\)/(\1)/'"

as a substitution.

answered May 03 '12 at 16:10

Rafał Rawicki

22,324
5
59
79

4

`\(*.*)/` hooray for grep `\(*.*)/` – Alain May 03 '12 at 16:14
Not a beautiful solution, but I had the same problem a while ago and this is what I found and put in my `.profile`. Probably I wasn't able to get a better one. I'd be happy to see it. – Rafał Rawicki May 03 '12 at 16:16
3

You can get the "full" definition of `__git_ps1` here. https://github.com/git/git/blob/master/contrib/completion/git-completion.bash It's a bit heavy, but gives you nice information about rebasing, merging, etc. – chepner May 04 '12 at 13:31
5

In fact, the [git-osx-installer](http://code.google.com/p/git-osx-installer/) comes with `git-completion.bash` and installs it to `/usr/local/git/contrib/completion/`. Just source that file from your `.bash_profile` to get `__git_ps1`. – sschuberth Jul 03 '12 at 08:01
@sschuberth Thanks for the hint! Looks like the prompt script has now been split out into `git-prompt.sh` found in the same directory as `git-completion.bash` (git version 1.8.3.4). – Johann Jan 05 '14 at 00:26

score 15 · Answer 2 · edited Jan 10 '13 at 22:08

15

The script you provided fails to detect git repos if the command __git_ps1 fails. Add this to ~/.bash_profile:

source /usr/local/git/contrib/completion/git-completion.bash
source /usr/local/git/contrib/completion/git-prompt.sh

Assuming you stored the script file as ~/.ps1, also add:

source ~/.ps1

This solution also enables tab completion for git.
Mac OS X installations of git do have __git_ps1 included, thanks sschuberth and cheapener for mentioning git-completion.bash.

edited Jan 10 '13 at 22:08

Andrew MacDonald

58
5

answered Jul 10 '12 at 02:09

such

583
4
9

2

My file was located in /Applications/Xcode.app/Contents/Developer/usr/share/git-core/git-completion.bash. Mountain Lion with Xcode CLI installed. – Jonatan Littke Jun 26 '13 at 08:00

Matt Daley · Answer 3 · 2016-04-06T07:37:40.870

On a new Yosemite mac using built in git, I used this:

source /Library/Developer/CommandLineTools/usr/share/git-core/git-completion.bash
source /Library/Developer/CommandLineTools/usr/share/git-core/git-prompt.sh
export PS1='\[\e]0;\u@\h: \w\a\]\[\e[32;1m\]\u@\h:\w \[\e[33;1m\]$(__git_ps1 "[%s] ")\[\e[32;1m\]\$ \[\e[0m\]'

Note: on El Capitan, I had to change the path of the git scripts to /Applications/Xcode.app/Contents/Developer/usr/share/git-core and I guess you have to have XCode installed for this to work.

score 1 · Answer 4 · answered Apr 02 '13 at 13:27

If you installed git through macports (git-core), you should add the following to ~/.bash_profile:

source /opt/local/etc/profile.d/bash_completion.sh
source /opt/local/share/git-core/git-prompt.sh

The location of the git-prompt.sh seemed to have changed a few times.

PS1 env variable does not work on mac

4 Answers4

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