2

In my Ubuntu 12.04, the prompt always show the following only (no matter what path I'm in):

-bash-4.2#

I guessed it is because .bashrc or .bash_profile is configured incorrectly.

My .bashrc is as follow:

# ~/.bashrc: executed by bash(1) for non-login shells.
# see /usr/share/doc/bash/examples/startup-files (in the package bash-doc)
# for examples

# If not running interactively, don't do anything
[ -z "$PS1" ] && return

# don't put duplicate lines or lines starting with space in the history.
# See bash(1) for more options
HISTCONTROL=ignoreboth

# append to the history file, don't overwrite it
shopt -s histappend

# for setting history length see HISTSIZE and HISTFILESIZE in bash(1)
HISTSIZE=1000
HISTFILESIZE=2000

# check the window size after each command and, if necessary,
# update the values of LINES and COLUMNS.
shopt -s checkwinsize

# If set, the pattern "**" used in a pathname expansion context will
# match all files and zero or more directories and subdirectories.
#shopt -s globstar

# make less more friendly for non-text input files, see lesspipe(1)
[ -x /usr/bin/lesspipe ] && eval "$(SHELL=/bin/sh lesspipe)"

# set variable identifying the chroot you work in (used in the prompt below)
if [ -z "$debian_chroot" ] && [ -r /etc/debian_chroot ]; then
    debian_chroot=$(cat /etc/debian_chroot)
fi

# set a fancy prompt (non-color, unless we know we "want" color)
case "$TERM" in
    xterm-color) color_prompt=yes;;
esac

# uncomment for a colored prompt, if the terminal has the capability; turned
# off by default to not distract the user: the focus in a terminal window
# should be on the output of commands, not on the prompt
#force_color_prompt=yes

if [ -n "$force_color_prompt" ]; then
    if [ -x /usr/bin/tput ] && tput setaf 1 >&/dev/null; then
    # We have color support; assume it's compliant with Ecma-48
    # (ISO/IEC-6429). (Lack of such support is extremely rare, and such
    # a case would tend to support setf rather than setaf.)
    color_prompt=yes
    else
    color_prompt=
    fi
fi

if [ "$color_prompt" = yes ]; then
    PS1='${debian_chroot:+($debian_chroot)}\[\033[01;32m\]\u@\h\[\033[00m\]:\[\033[01;34m\]\w\[\033[00m\]\$ '
else
    PS1='${debian_chroot:+($debian_chroot)}\u@\h:\w\$ '
fi
unset color_prompt force_color_prompt

# If this is an xterm set the title to user@host:dir
case "$TERM" in
xterm*|rxvt*)
    PS1="\[\e]0;${debian_chroot:+($debian_chroot)}\u@\h: \w\a\]$PS1"
    ;;
*)
    ;;
esac

# enable color support of ls and also add handy aliases
if [ -x /usr/bin/dircolors ]; then
    test -r ~/.dircolors && eval "$(dircolors -b ~/.dircolors)" || eval "$(dircolors -b)"
    alias ls='ls --color=auto'
    #alias dir='dir --color=auto'
    #alias vdir='vdir --color=auto'

    alias grep='grep --color=auto'
    alias fgrep='fgrep --color=auto'
    alias egrep='egrep --color=auto'
fi

# some more ls aliases
alias ll='ls -alF'
alias la='ls -A'
alias l='ls -CF'

# Add an "alert" alias for long running commands.  Use like so:
#   sleep 10; alert
alias alert='notify-send --urgency=low -i "$([ $? = 0 ] && echo terminal || echo error)" "$(history|tail -n1|sed -e '\''s/^\s*[0-9]\+\s*//;s/[;&|]\s*alert$//'\'')"'

# Alias definitions.
# You may want to put all your additions into a separate file like
# ~/.bash_aliases, instead of adding them here directly.
# See /usr/share/doc/bash-doc/examples in the bash-doc package.

if [ -f ~/.bash_aliases ]; then
    . ~/.bash_aliases
fi

# enable programmable completion features (you don't need to enable
# this, if it's already enabled in /etc/bash.bashrc and /etc/profile
# sources /etc/bash.bashrc).
if [ -f /etc/bash_completion ] && ! shopt -oq posix; then
    . /etc/bash_completion
fi

and my .bash_profile is as follow:

JAVA_HOME=$(readlink -f /usr/bin/javac | sed "s:/bin/javac::")

How do I restore the default settings (to show the current directory) in my shell?

UPDATE: Here is the output of bash -x:

http://pastebin.com/HT4xncGw (way too long to paste here)

Raptor
  • 305

1 Answers1

2

This is normally specified in the file /etc/bash.bashrc on Ubuntu systems. The environment variable $PS1 sets the values of the shell prompt. This is Ubuntu's default prompt:

PS1='${debian_chroot:+($debian_chroot)}\u@\h:\w\$ '

Copy that line in your /etc/bash.bashrc (maybe it is already there, but commented). However, after that, open a new bash process and your prompt should be set again.

chaos
  • 48,171
  • the exact line is in the /etc/bash.bashrc uncommented, and it's not overwritten by the lines after that... – Raptor Oct 14 '15 at 06:58
  • What's the output of echo $PS1 in that terminal? – chaos Oct 14 '15 at 07:03
  • The output is \s-\v\$ , don't know where it is overwritten... – Raptor Oct 14 '15 at 07:09
  • Search for it: grep -r "PS1" ~ /etc/. It must be somewhere in the homedirectory or in /etc – chaos Oct 14 '15 at 07:12
  • you won't believe that, the \s-\v\$ does not appear in the search result of grep -Ir "PS1" ~ /etc/ ( I filtered away the binary results ) – Raptor Oct 14 '15 at 07:18
  • Ok, then the file is maybe not loaded. Can you add a line for example echo "blah" in /etc/bash.bashrc and then start another terminal. So you can the sure the file is processed when that line appears. – chaos Oct 14 '15 at 07:23
  • Right, the echo line doesn't get called in a new session of terminal – Raptor Oct 14 '15 at 07:25
  • Is that bash invoked as sh if yes, the bash.bashrc file is not read, check /etc/passwd, also check the permission ls -l /etc/bash.bashrc – chaos Oct 14 '15 at 07:35
  • permission is : -rw-r--r-- 1 root root and seems sh linked to dash : lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 4 Mar 30 2012 sh -> dash – Raptor Oct 14 '15 at 07:48
  • Have you placed echo blah as first line after the initial comments in /etc/bash.bashrc, not as last line? – chaos Oct 14 '15 at 07:59
  • moving to the 1st line, the result remains the same. – Raptor Oct 14 '15 at 08:41
  • How do you call that new bash process? Whats the user you have logged in? What happend when calling bash in the termian, just: bash or bash --rcfile /etc/bash.bashrc? – chaos Oct 14 '15 at 08:44
  • I use SSH to connect to the Ubuntu. For new process, I logout from server & re-login via SSH. When I issue bash, it works like what I want to achieve, and the echo line appears. – Raptor Oct 14 '15 at 09:09
  • And you login with root? Can you post eh first line of etc/passwd? sed -n '1p' /etc/passwd – chaos Oct 14 '15 at 09:23
  • I login with root ( I know this is not a good practice... but this server is configured with this ). First line is : root:x:0:0:root:/root:/bin/bash – Raptor Oct 14 '15 at 09:54
  • Have you tried to ssh from another host/with another ssh client (putty for example)? I think it's the local ssh client configuration that gives parameters or environment variables to the remote bash, preventing it from starting normally – chaos Oct 14 '15 at 10:06