Bash Prompt HOWTO:
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# 12.7. A Prompt the Width of Your Term

A friend complained that he didn't like having a prompt that kept changing size because it had $PWD in it, so I wrote this prompt that adjusts its size to exactly the width of your term, with the working directory on the top line of two.

    #!/bin/bash
    #   termwide prompt with tty number
    #      by Giles - created 2 November 98, last tweaked 31 July 2001
    #
    #     This is a variant on "termwide" that incorporates the tty number.
    #

    hostnam=$(hostname -s)
    usernam=$(whoami)
    temp="$(tty)"
    #   Chop off the first five chars of tty (ie /dev/):
    cur_tty="${temp:5}"
    unset temp

    function prompt_command {

    #   Find the width of the prompt:
    TERMWIDTH=${COLUMNS}

    #   Add all the accessories below ...
    local temp="--(${usernam}@${hostnam}:${cur_tty})---(${PWD})--"

    let fillsize=${TERMWIDTH}-${#temp}
    if [ "$fillsize" -gt "0" ]
    then
    	fill="-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------"
    	#   It's theoretically possible someone could need more
    	#   dashes than above, but very unlikely!  HOWTO users,
    	#   the above should be ONE LINE, it may not cut and
    	#   paste properly
    	fill="${fill:0:${fillsize}}"
    	newPWD="${PWD}"
    fi

    if [ "$fillsize" -lt "0" ]
    then
    	fill=""
    	let cut=3-${fillsize}
    	newPWD="...${PWD:${cut}}"
    fi
    }

    PROMPT_COMMAND=prompt_command

    function twtty {

    local WHITE="\[\033[1;37m\]"
    local NO_COLOUR="\[\033[0m\]"

    local LIGHT_BLUE="\[\033[1;34m\]"
    local YELLOW="\[\033[1;33m\]"

    case $TERM in
        xterm*|rxvt*)
            TITLEBAR='\[\033]0;\u@\h:\w\007\]'
            ;;
        *)
            TITLEBAR=""
            ;;
    esac

    PS1="$TITLEBAR\
    $YELLOW-$LIGHT_BLUE-(\
    $YELLOW\$usernam$LIGHT_BLUE@$YELLOW\$hostnam$LIGHT_BLUE:$WHITE\$cur_tty\
    ${LIGHT_BLUE})-${YELLOW}-\${fill}${LIGHT_BLUE}-(\
    $YELLOW\${newPWD}\
    $LIGHT_BLUE)-$YELLOW-\
    \n\
    $YELLOW-$LIGHT_BLUE-(\
    $YELLOW\$(date +%H%M)$LIGHT_BLUE:$YELLOW\$(date \"+%a,%d %b %y\")\
    $LIGHT_BLUE:$WHITE\$$LIGHT_BLUE)-\
    $YELLOW-\
    $NO_COLOUR "

    PS2="$LIGHT_BLUE-$YELLOW-$YELLOW-$NO_COLOUR "

    }

The twtty prompt in action.

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