10 examples to customize or change the login prompt using PS1 variable of bash shell in Linux

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After your Linux node boots up and once you enter your username and password, you are provided with a shell prompt which looks something like below

my-linux-setup:~ #

When  executing interactively, bash displays the primary prompt PS1 when it is ready to read a command, and the secondary prompt PS2 when it needs more input to complete a command.

Bash allows these prompt strings to be customized by  inserting a number of backslash-escaped special characters that are decoded as follows:

      a     an ASCII bell character (07)
      d     the date in "Weekday Month Date" format (e.g., "Tue May 26")
      D     the  format  is  passed  to  strftime(3) and the result is inserted into the prompt string; an empty format results in a locale-specific time representation.  The braces are required
      e     an ASCII escape character (033)
      h     the hostname up to the first `.'
      H     the hostname
      j     the number of jobs currently managed by the shell
      l     the basename of the shell's terminal device name
      n     newline
      r     carriage return
      s     the name of the shell, the basename of $0 (the portion following the final slash)
      t     the current time in 24-hour HH:MM:SS format
      T     the current time in 12-hour HH:MM:SS format
      @     the current time in 12-hour am/pm format
      A     the current time in 24-hour HH:MM format
      u     the username of the current user
      v     the version of bash (e.g., 2.00)
      V     the release of bash, version + patch level (e.g., 2.00.0)
      w     the current working directory, with $HOME abbreviated with a tilde (uses the value  of  the  PROMPT_DIRTRIM variable)
      W     the basename of the current working directory, with $HOME abbreviated with a tilde
      !     the history number of this command
      #     the command number of this command
      $     if the effective UID is 0, a #, otherwise a $
      nnn   the character corresponding to the octal number nnn
      \     a backslash
      [     begin  a sequence of non-printing characters, which could be used to embed a terminal control sequence into the prompt

There are ways to change this as per your requirement, lets go through some of the examples

Display only the hostname

# export PS1='[h :~]# '

[my-linux-setup :~]#

Display only the current working directory

# export PS1='[w :~]# '

[/var/lib :~]#

Display hostname and current working directory with complete path

# export PS1='[h:w :~]# '

[my-linux-setup:/var/lib :~]#

Display hostname and current working directory name

# export PS1='[h W :~]# '

[my-linux-setup lib :~]# pwd
/var/lib

Display username, hostname and current working directory with path

# export PS1='[u@h w :~]# '

[root@my-linux-setup /var/lib :~]#

Display username, hostname and current working directory name

# export PS1='[u@h W :~]# '

[root@my-linux-setup lib :~]# pwd
/var/lib

Display username, FQDN and current working directory with path

# export PS1='[u@H w]# '

[root@my-linux-setup.example /var/lib]#

Display date along with hostname and username

# export PS1='[u@h d]# '

[root@my-linux-setup Sat Feb 10]#

Display current time with username and hostname

# export PS1='[u@h A ~]# '

[root@my-linux-setup 16:20 ~]#
[root@my-linux-setup 16:22 ~]#
[root@my-linux-setup 16:24 ~]#
[root@my-linux-setup 16:26 ~]#

Display the current shell name along with username and hostname

# export PS1='[u@h s ~]# '

[root@my-linux-setup -bash ~]#

Changed the shell to 'sh'

[root@my-linux-setup -bash ~]# sh
[root@my-linux-setup sh ~]#