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Accepted
Kristopher Ives
Asked: 2010-07-07 12:46:03 +0800 CST

Make all accounts use the same kind of Bash

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On a dedicated server we use the shell is setup differently between accounts, which is quite irritating. When I ssh into most users I get:

[user@machine some_dir]$

However, with some accounts I get:

bash-3.2$

I keep a lot of shells open to various machines, and there are a lot of different accounts. I have the ability to either make everyone have the same ~/.bashrc, but I also believe there is a global config somewhere in /etc

What's the fastest way to make sure I get the same shell whenever I ssh?

linux bash ssh shell users

2 Answers

  1. /etc/profile is the standard location for the system-wide bash configuration on most systems.

    From the bash manpage:

    PROMPTING
       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.
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  2. Best Answer

    Your best bet is a mix of the two approaches. Bash will always load ~/.bashrc. You should place a standard file in /etc/skel/.bashrc and ~/.bashrc that in turn sources something like /etc/bash.bashrc. (The version in skel will get used for new user accounts.) Put your defaults in the latter file.

    Example user .bashrc:

    # this line activates the system-wide default settings
. /etc/bash.bashrc

# users can add any custom .bashrc settings here

    Example /etc/bash.bashrc based on my prompt:

    G='\e[1;32m'
R='\e[1;31m'
Y='\e[1;33m'
N='\e[0m'
PS1='\A \['$G'\]\u@\h \['$Y'\]\w\['$N'\] \$ '

    With this setup, you can later change the system-wide prompt and add other settings without having to edit everybody's .bashrc file. Hope that helps.

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