lpr/README.md

Liquid prompt -- A useful adaptive prompt for Bash & Zsh
========================================================

Liquid prompt is a smart prompt for the "Bourne-Again" Unix shell (bash) and for
Zsh.

The basic idea of the liquid prompt is to nicely display useful informations on
the shell prompt, only when they are needed. It adds carefuly chosen colors to
draw your attention on what differs from the normal context. Thus, you will
notice what changes, when it changes, because you do not become accommodated to
informations that are always displayed in the same way.

You can use it with either bash and zsh.

![Screenshot](https://raw.github.com/nojhan/liquidprompt/master/demo.png)

## FEATURES

If there is nothing special in the current context, the liquid prompt is close
to a default prompt:

`[user:~] $ `

If you have ran one command in background that is still running and that you are
in a git repository on a server, at branch "myb":

`1r [user@server:~/liquidprompt] myb ± `

A liquid prompt displaying everything may look like this:

`⌁24% ⌂42% 3d/2&/1z [user@server:~/ … /code/liquidprompt]↥ master(+10/-5,3)* 125 ± `

It displays:

* a green ⌁ if the battery is charging and above a given threshold,
a yellow ⌁ if the battery is charging and under threshold,
a red ⌁ if the battery is discharging but above threshold;
* the average of the batteries remaining power, if it is under the given
threshold, with a colormap, going more and more red with decreasing power;
* the average of the processors load, if it is over a given limit, with a
colormap that became more and more noticeable with increasing load;
* the number of detached sessions (`screen`), if there is any;
* the number of attached sleeping jobs (when you interrupt a command with Ctrl-Z
and bring it back with `fg`), if there is any;
* the number of attached running jobs (commands started with a `&`), if there is
any;
* the current user, in bold yellow if it is root, in light white if it is not
the same as the login user;
* a blue @ if the connection has X11 support;
* the current host, if you are connected via an SSH or telnet connection, with
different colors for each case;
* a green colon if the user has write permissions on the current directory,
a red one if he has not;
* the current directory in bold, shortened if it takes too much space, while
preserving the first two directories;
* the current Python virtual environment, if any;
* an up arrow if an HTTP proxy is in use;
* the name of the current branch if you are in a version control repository
(git, mercurial, subversion or fossil), in green if everything is up
to date, in red if there is changes, in yellow if there is pending
commits to push;
* the number of added/deleted lines (git) or files (fossil), if
changes have been made and the number of pending commits, if any;
* a star if there is some untracked files in the repository;
* the error code of the last command, if it has failed in some way;
* a smart mark: ± for git directories, ☿ for mercurial, ‡ for svn, ⌘
for fossil, $ for simple user, a red # for root.
* if you ask for, the liquidprompt will be replicated in your terminal window's
title (without the colors)

You can temporarily deactivate the liquid prompt and come back to your previous
one by typing `prompt_off`. Use `prompt_on` to bring it back. You can deactivate
any prompt and use a single mark sign (`$ ` for user and `# ` for root) with the
`prompt_OFF` command.


## INSTALL

Include the file in your bash configuration, for example in your `.bashrc`:

`source liquidprompt`

Copy the `liquidpromptrc-dist` file in your home directory as
`~/.config/liquidpromptrc` or `~/.liquidpromptrc` and edit it according to your
preferences. If you skip this step, the default behaviour will be used.

Note that you should not overwrite the `PROMPT_COMMAND` variable, or else the
prompt will not be available.


## DEPENDENCIES

Apart from obvious ones, some features depends on specific commands. If you do
not install them, the corresponding feature will not be available, but you will
see no error.

* battery status need `acpi`,
* detached sessions is looking for `screen`.
* VCS support features needs… `git`, `hg` or `svn`, but you knew it.

For other features, the script uses commands that should be available on a large
variety of unixes: `tput`, `grep`, `awk`, `sed`, `ps`, `who`.


## FEATURES CONFIGURATION

You can configure some variables in the `~/.liquidpromptrc` file:

* `LP_BATTERY_THRESHOLD`, the maximal value under which the battery level is
displayed
* `LP_LOAD_THRESHOLD`, the minimal value after which the load average is
displayed
* `LP_PATH_LENGTH`, the maximum percentage of the screen width used to display
the path
* `LP_PATH_KEEP`, how many directories to keep at the beginning of a shortened
path
* `LP_HOSTNAME_ALWAYS`, choose between always displaying the hostname or showing
it only when connected with a remote shell
* `LP_USER_ALWAYS`, choose between always displaying the user or showing
it only when he is different from the logged one

You can also force some features to be disabled, to save some time in the prompt
building:
* `LP_ENABLE_PERM`, if you want to detect if the directory is writable
* `LP_ENABLE_SHORTEN_PATH`, if you to shorten the path display
* `LP_ENABLE_PROXY`, if you want to detect if a proxy is used
* `LP_ENABLE_JOBS`, if you want to have jobs informations
* `LP_ENABLE_LOAD`, if you want to have load informations
* `LP_ENABLE_BATT`, if you want to have battery informations
* `LP_ENABLE_GIT`, if you want to have git informations
* `LP_ENABLE_SVN`, if you want to have subversion informations
* `LP_ENABLE_HG`, if you want to have mercurial informations
* `LP_ENABLE_FOSSIL`, if you want to have fossil informations
* `LP_ENABLE_VCS_ROOT`, if you want to show VCS informations with root account
* `LP_ENABLE_TITLE`, if you want to use the prompt as your terminal window's title

Note that if required commands are not installed, enabling the
corresponding feature will have no effect.
Note also that all the `LP_ENABLE_…` variables override the templates,
i.e. if you use `$LP_BATT` in your template and you set `LP_ENABLE_BATT=0`
in your config file, you will not have the battery informations.

If you are using bash and want to use the `PROMPT_DIRTRIM` built-in
functionality to shorten but still have liquidprompt calculating the number of
directories to keep in the path, precise a value for `PROMPT_DIRTRIM` before
sourcing liquidprompt and liquidprompt will override this value with one
fitting the width of your terminal.


## CUSTOMIZING THE PROMPT

### ADD A PS1 PREFIX

You can prefix the `LP_PS1` variable with anything you want using the
`LP_PS1_PREFIX`. The following example activate a custom window's title:

    LP_PS1_PREFIX="\[\e]0;\u@\h: \w\a\]"

### PUT THE PROMPT IN A DIFFERENT ORDER

You can sort what you want to see by sourcing your favorite template file
(`*.ps1`) in the configuration file.

Those scripts basically export the `LP_PS1` variable, by appending features and
theme colors.

Available features:
* `LP_BATT` battery
* `LP_LOAD` load
* `LP_JOBS` screen sessions/running jobs/suspended jobs
* `LP_USER` user
* `LP_HOST` hostname
* `LP_PERM` a colon ":"
* `LP_PWD` current working directory
* `LP_PROXY` HTTP proxy
* `LP_GIT` git
* `LP_HG` mercurial
* `LP_SVN` subversion
* `LP_FOSSIL` fossil
* `LP_ERR` last error code
* `LP_MARK` prompt mark
* `LP_TITLE` the prompt as a window's title escaped sequence

For example, if you just want to have a liquidprompt displaying the user and the
host, with a normal full path in blue and only the git support:

    export LP_PS1=`echo -ne "[\${LP_USER}\${LP_HOST}:\${BLUE}\$(pwd)\${NO_COL}] \${LP_GIT} \\\$ "`

Note that you need to properly escape dollars in a string that wil be
interpreted by bash at each prompt.

To erase your new formatting, just bring the `LP_PS1` to a null string:

     export LP_PS1=""


## THEMES

You can change the colors and special characters of some part of the liquid
prompt by sourcing your favorite theme file (`*.theme`) in the configuration file.

### COLORS

Available colors are:
BOLD, BLACK, BOLD_GRAY, WHITE, BOLD_WHITE,
GREEN, BOLD_GREEN, YELLOW, BOLD_YELLOW, BLUE, BOLD_BLUE, PINK, CYAN, BOLD_CYAN
RED, BOLD_RED, WARN_RED, CRIT_RED, DANGER_RED,
NO_COL.
Set to a null string "" if you do not want color.

* Current working directory
    * `LP_COLOR_PATH` as normal user
    * `LP_COLOR_PATH_ROOT` as root
* Color of the proxy mark
    * `LP_COLOR_PROXY`
* Jobs count
    * `LP_COLOR_JOB_D` Detached (aka screen sessions)
    * `LP_COLOR_JOB_R` Running (xterm &)
    * `LP_COLOR_JOB_Z` Sleeping (Ctrl-Z)
* Last error code
    * `LP_COLOR_ERR`
* Prompt mark
    * `LP_COLOR_MARK` as user
    * `LP_COLOR_MARK_ROOT` as root
* Current user
    * `LP_COLOR_USER_LOGGED` user who logged in
    * `LP_COLOR_USER_ALT` user but not the one who logged in
    * `LP_COLOR_USER_ROOT` root
* Hostname
    * `LP_COLOR_HOST` local host
    * `LP_COLOR_SSH` connected via SSH
    * `LP_COLOR_TELNET` connected via telnet
    * `LP_COLOR_X11_ON` connected with X11 support
    * `LP_COLOR_X11_OFF` connected without X11 support
* Separation mark (aka permiison in the working dir)
    * `LP_COLOR_WRITE` have write permission
    * `LP_COLOR_NOWRITE` do not have write permission
* VCS
    * `LP_COLOR_UP` repository is up to date / a push have been made
    * `LP_COLOR_COMMITS` some commits have not been pushed
    * `LP_COLOR_CHANGES` there is some changes to commit
    * `LP_COLOR_DIFF` number of lines or files impacted by current changes
* Battery
    * `LP_COLOR_CHARGING_ABOVE` charging and above threshold
    * `LP_COLOR_CHARGING_UNDER` charging but under threshold
    * `LP_COLOR_DISCHARGING_ABOVE` discharging but above threshold
    * `LP_COLOR_DISCHARGING_UNDER` discharging and under threshold


### CHARACTERS

Special characters:
* `LP_MARK_BATTERY` (default: "⌁") in front of the battery charge
* `LP_MARK_ADAPTER` (default: "⏚") displayed when plugged
* `LP_MARK_LOAD` (default: "⌂") in front of the load
* `LP_MARK_PROXY` (default: "↥") indicate a proxy in use
* `LP_MARK_HG` (default: "☿") prompt mark in hg repositories
* `LP_MARK_SVN` (default: "‡") prompt mark in svn repositories
* `LP_MARK_GIT` (default: "±") prompt mark in git repositories
* `LP_MARK_FOSSIL` (default: "⌘") prompt mark in fossil repositories
* `LP_MARK_UNTRACKED` (default: "*") if git has untracked files
* `LP_TITLE_OPEN` (default: "\e]0;") escape character opening a window's title
* `LP_TITLE_CLOSE` (default: "\a") escape character closing a window's title


## KNOWN LIMITATIONS AND BUGS

Liquid prompt is distributed under the GNU Affero General Public License
version 3.

* detached sessions only looks for `screen`, a `tmux` support would be nice…
* Does not display the number of commits to be pushed in Mercurial repositories.
* Browsing into very large subversion repositories may dramatically slow down
the display of the liquid prompt.
* Subversion repository cannot display commits to be pushed, this is a
limitation of the Subversion versionning model.
* The proxy detection only uses the `$http_proxy` environment variable.
* The window's title escape sequence may not work properly on some terminals
(like xterm-256)