A Powerline style prompt for your shell

A Powerline like prompt for Bash, ZSH, Fish, and tcsh:

Shows some important details about the git/svn/hg/fossil branch (see below)
Changes color if the last command exited with a failure code
If you're too deep into a directory tree, shortens the displayed path with an ellipsis
Shows the current Python virtualenv environment
It's easy to customize and extend. See below for details.

Table of Contents generated with DocToc

Version Control
Setup
- Bash
- ZSH
- Fish
Customization
Troubleshooting

Version Control

All of the version control systems supported by powerline shell give you a quick look into the state of your repo:

The current branch is displayed and changes background color when the branch is dirty.
When the local branch differs from the remote, the difference in number of commits is shown along with ⇡ or ⇣ indicating whether a git push or pull is pending.

In addition, git has a few extra symbols:

✎ -- a file has been modified, but not staged for commit
✔ -- a file is staged for commit
✼ -- a file has conflicts

FIXME

A + appears when untracked files are present (except for git, which uses ? instead)

Each of these will have a number next to it if more than one file matches.

Setup

This script uses ANSI color codes to display colors in a terminal. These are notoriously non-portable, so may not work for you out of the box, but try setting your $TERM to xterm-256color, because that works for me.

Patch the font you use for your terminal: see powerline-fonts
- If you struggle too much to get working fonts in your terminal, you can use "compatible" mode.
- If you're using old patched fonts, you have to use the older symbols. Basically reverse this commit in your copy.
Install using pip:

pip install powerline-shell

(You can use the --user option to install for just your user, if you'd like. But you may need to fiddle with your PATH to get this working properly.)

Or, install from the git repository:

git clone https://github.com/banga/powerline-shell
cd powerline-shell
python setup.py install

Setup your shell prompt using the instructions for your shell below.

Bash

Add the following to your .bashrc (or .profile on Mac):

function _update_ps1() {
    PS1="$(powerline-shell $?)"
}

if [ "$TERM" != "linux" ]; then
    PROMPT_COMMAND="_update_ps1; $PROMPT_COMMAND"
fi

ZSH

Add the following to your .zshrc:

function powerline_precmd() {
    PS1="$(powerline-shell --shell zsh $?)"
}

function install_powerline_precmd() {
  for s in "${precmd_functions[@]}"; do
    if [ "$s" = "powerline_precmd" ]; then
      return
    fi
  done
  precmd_functions+=(powerline_precmd)
}

if [ "$TERM" != "linux" ]; then
    install_powerline_precmd
fi

Fish

Redefine fish_prompt in ~/.config/fish/config.fish:

function fish_prompt
    powerline-shell --shell bare $status
end

tcsh

Add the following to your .tcshrc:

alias precmd 'set prompt="`powerline-shell --shell tcsh $?`"'

Customization

Config File

Powerline-shell is customizable through the use of a config file. This file is expected to be located at ~/.powerline-shell.json. You can generate the default config at this location using:

powerline-shell --generate-config > ~/.powerline-shell.json

(You can see an example config file here)

Adding, Removing and Re-arranging segments

Once you have generated your config file, you can now start adding or removing "segments" - the building blocks of your shell. The list of segments available are:

aws_profile - Show which AWS profile is in use. See the AWS documentation.
battery - See percentage of battery charged and an icon when the battery is charging.
bzr - Details about the current Bazaar repo.
cwd - Shows your current working directory. See Segment Configuration for some options.
exit_code - When the previous command ends in a non-zero status, shows the value of the exit status in red.
fossil - Details about the current Fossil repo.
git - Details about the current Git repo.
hg - Details about the current Mercurial repo.
hostname - Current machine's hostname.
jobs - Number of background jobs currently running.
newline - Inserts a newline into the prompt.
node_version - node --version
npm_version - npm --version
php_version - Version of php on the machine.
rbenv - rbenv local
read_only - Shows a lock icon if the current directory is read-only.
root - Shows a # if logged in as root, $ otherwise.
ruby_version - ruby --version
set_term_title - If able, sets the title of your terminal to include some useful info.
ssh - If logged into over SSH, shows a network icon.
svn - Details about the current SVN repo.
time - Shows the current time.
uptime - Uptime of the current machine.
username - Name of the logged-in user.
virtual_env - Shows the name of the current virtual env or conda env.

Segment Separator

By default, a unicode character (resembling the > symbol) is used to separate each segment. This can be changed by changing the "mode" option in the config file. The available modes are:

patched - The default.
compatible - Attempts to use characters that may already be available using your chosen font.
flat - No separator is used between segments, giving each segment a rectangular appearance (and also saves space).

Themes

The powerline_shell/themes directory stores themes for your prompt, which are basically color values used by segments. The default.py defines a default theme which can be used standalone, and every other theme falls back to it if they miss colors for any segments. Create new themes by copying any other existing theme and changing the values. To use a theme, set the theme variable in ~/.powerline-shell.json to the name of your theme.

A script for testing color combinations is provided at colortest.py. Note that the colors you see may vary depending on your terminal. When designing a theme, please test your theme on multiple terminals, especially with default settings.

Segment Configuration

Some segments support additional configuration. The options for the segment are nested under the name of the segment itself. For example, all of the options for the cwd segment are set in ~/.powerline-shell.py like:

{
    "segments": [...],
    "cwd": {
        options go here
    }
}

The options for the cwd segment are:

mode: If "plain" then simple text will be used to show the cwd. If "dironly," only the current directory will be shown. Otherwise expands the cwd into individual directories.
max_depth: Maximum number of directories to show in path.
max_dir_size: Maximum number of characters displayed for each directory in the path.
full_cwd: If true, the last directory will not be shortened when max_dir_size is used.

The hostname segment provides one option:

colorize: If true, the hostname will be colorized based on a hash of itself.

The options for the battery segment are:

always_show_percentage: If true, show percentage when fully charged on AC.
low_threshold: Threshold percentage for low-battery indicator color.

Contributing new types of segments

The powerline_shell/segments directory contains python scripts which are injected as is into a single file powerline_shell_base.py. Each segment script defines a function that inserts one or more segments into the prompt. If you want to add a new segment, simply create a new file in the segments directory.

Make sure that your script does not introduce new globals which might conflict with other scripts. Your script should fail silently and run quickly in any scenario.

Make sure you introduce new default colors in themes/default.py for every new segment you create. Test your segment with this theme first.

You should add tests for your segment as best you are able. Unit and integration tests are both welcome. Run your tests by running the test.sh script. It uses docker to manage dependencies and the environment. Alternatively, you can run the nosetests command after installing the requirements in requirements-dev.txt.

Troubleshooting

See the FAQ. If you continue to have issues, please open an issue.

ypresto/powerline-shell