David Greer mentioned that /etc/profile contains:
: > export PS1='shell/iX> '
 
and went on to suggest a better version...but one that still
contains a ">" in it.
 
Ahh...something that Gavin and I got bit on recently...
I no longer have a ">" in my prompt for a very practical reason:
 
   It's dangerous!
 
Let's say your prompt is "foo>", and your current working directory
is /bin  , and you want to run a program that happens to reside
in /bin (say, /bin/ls), and you start to type:
 
    foo> ls blah
 
(i.e., you were prompted with "foo>", and you type "ls blah"...but no
<return> yet)
 
Now, you accidentally hit the HP "<enter>" key  (no, *not* the <return>
key ... the "transmit this line" key!!!!!)
 
What does the computer see by the time it gets the <return> at the
end if the "transmit this line"?   simple:
 
     ls blahfoo> ls blah
     -------
     ^      ------------
     |      ^
     |      \<---- sent by the <enter> key (along with a <return> at end)
     |
     \<---- typed by the user
 
What does the shell do?  it opens "ls" as the output file for your
command, because of the @#$%^ ">" in the line!
 
Poof! You've just lost the "ls" program.
(assuming you had the ability to write onto that file)
 
Been there, done that :(
 
On Unix (HP-UX and AIX) I now use:
 
   PS1='($HOSTNAME$LVL) $PWD: '
 
and my .kshrc file (I use ksh) has in it:
 
    let LVL=LVL+1
 
In this manner, my prompt tells me:
 
   1) name of computer I am on;
 
   2) depth of "ksh" nesting.  (a "ksh" or a simple "su" re-invokes
     .kshrc each time, thereby incrementing the nesting counter...
     a poor-mans simulation of HPCIDEPTH)
 
   3) my current working directory
 
   4) and *no* ">" !
 
--
Stan Sieler
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