Local User Customizations

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By default, Ubuntu does not enable use of user local .bash* scripts. To enable these, I added the following to /etc/bash.bashrc: 

  if [ -e $HOME/.bash_profile ]; then
     . ~/.bash_profile
  fi


Now I can make all the customizations I want, for me, in my local .bash_profile, or my local .bashrc, which is invoked from .bash_profile.

File type Associations

Programs that show up in the Nautilus Properties popup menu under Open With that can't be removed appear to come from associations in the file /usr/share/applications/mimeinfo.cache. If you delete the association from here, it goes away from the Open With page.


Built in File type assignements (eg; associating .dat files with video/mpeg) are in /usr/share/mime/packages/freedesktop.org.xml. These are also in /usr/share/mime/globs, but globs is generated automatically.

Once you have made changes to freedesktop.org.xml run: 

sudo update-mime-database /usr/share/mime

Prompt Customization

Bash allows prompt strings to be customized by inserting a number of backslash-escaped special characters that are decoded as follows:

  • \a : an ASCII bell character (07)
  • \d : the date in "Weekday Month Date" format (e.g., "Tue May 26")
  • \D{format} : the format is passed to strftime(3) and the result is inserted into the prompt string; an empty format results in a locale-specific time representation. The braces are required
  • \e : an ASCII escape character (033)
  • \h : the hostname up to the first '.'
  • \H : the hostname
  • \j : the number of jobs currently managed by the shell
  • \l : the basename of the shell’s terminal device name
  • \n : newline
  • \r : carriage return
  • \s : the name of the shell, the basename of $0 (the portion following the final slash)
  • \t : the current time in 24-hour HH:MM:SS format
  • \T : the current time in 12-hour HH:MM:SS format
  • \@ : the current time in 12-hour am/pm format
  • \A : the current time in 24-hour HH:MM format
  • \u : the username of the current user
  • \v : the version of bash (e.g., 2.00)
  • \V : the release of bash, version + patch level (e.g., 2.00.0)
  • \w : the current working directory, with $HOME abbreviated with a tilde
  • \W : the basename of the current working directory, with $HOME abbreviated with a tilde
  • \! : the history number of this command
  • \# : the command number of this command
  • \$ : if the effective UID is 0, a #, otherwise a $
  • \nnn : the character corresponding to the octal number nnn
  • \\ : a backslash
  • \[ : begin a sequence of non-printing characters, which could be used to embed a terminal control sequence into the prompt
  • \] : end a sequence of non-printing characters
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