If you are a person who often perform daily tasks via command line interface, you might have ever performed multiple commands at once (usually by adding "&&" between them). But, you might be confused when analyzing the output of every command and when the command is finished. So today, I'd like to show you how to add a handy separator line between commands on Linux Terminal.


As you can see the picture above, at the end of every command there will be a separator line followed by the time completion of related command. Are you interested in it? OK! Please open your text editor and paste the following code:
  • # Fill with minuses
  • # (this is recalculated every time the prompt is shown in function prompt_command):
  • fill="--- "

  • reset_style='\[\033[00m\]'
  • status_style=$reset_style'\[\033[0;90m\]' # gray color; use 0;37m for lighter color
  • prompt_style=$reset_style
  • command_style=$reset_style'\[\033[1;29m\]' # bold black
  • # Prompt variable:

  • PS1="$status_style"'$fill \t\n'"$prompt_style"'${debian_chroot:+($debian_chroot)}\u@\h:\w\$'"$command_style "

  • # Reset color for command output
  • # (this one is invoked every time before a command is executed):
  • trap 'echo -ne "\e[0m"' DEBUG


  • function prompt_command {

  • # create a $fill of all screen width minus the time string and a space:
  • let fillsize=${COLUMNS}-9
  • fill=""
  • while [ "$fillsize" -gt "0" ]
  • do
  • fill="-${fill}" # fill with underscores to work on
  • let fillsize=${fillsize}-1
  • done

  • # If this is an xterm set the title to user@host:dir
  • case "$TERM" in
  • xterm*|rxvt*)
  • bname=`basename "${PWD/$HOME/~}"`
  • echo -ne "\033]0;${bname}: ${USER}@${HOSTNAME}: ${PWD/$HOME/~}\007"
  • ;;
  • *)
  • ;;
  • esac

  • }
  • PROMPT_COMMAND=prompt_command
Save the above code as ".bash_ps1" (don't forget the dot character) and place it in your Home folder.
Lazy copying the code? Download the ".bash_ps1" file here.

Now, edit your ".bashrc" file which is located in your Home folder and append the below code:
  • if [ -f "$HOME/.bash_ps1" ]; then
  • . "$HOME/.bash_ps1"
  • fi
Save the change and run the following command to "apply" your work:
  • source ~/.bashrc

Regards :)