How to expand PS1?

Question

I have a shell script that runs the same command in several directories (fgit). For each directory, I would like it to show the current prompt + the command which will be ru

Answer 1

Two answer: "Pure bash" and "bash + sed"

As doing this by using sed is simplier, the first answer will use sed.

See below for pure bash solution.

bash prompt expansion, bash + sed

There is my hack:

ExpPS1="$(bash --rcfile <(echo "PS1='$PS1'") -i <<<'' 2>&1 |
              sed ':;$!{N;b};s/^\(.*\n\)*\(.*\)\n\2exit$/\2/p;d')"

Explanation:

Running bash --rcfile <(echo "PS1='$PS1'") -i <<<'' 2>&1

May return something like:

To run a command as administrator (user "root"), use "sudo ".
See "man sudo_root" for details.

ubuntu@ubuntu:~$ 
ubuntu@ubuntu:~$ exit

The sed command will then

• take all lines into one buffer (:;$!{N;b};), than
• replace end-of-lineexit by . (s/^\(.*\n\)*\(.*\)\n\2exit$/\2/).
  • where become \1
  • and become \2.

Test case:

while ExpPS1="$(bash --rcfile <(echo "PS1='$PS1'") -i <<<'' 2>&1 |
          sed ':;$!{N;b};s/^\(.*\n\)*\(.*\)\n\2exit$/\2/p;d')"
    read -rp "$ExpPS1" && [ "$REPLY" != exit ] ;do
    eval "$REPLY"
  done

From there, you're in a kind of pseudo interactive shell (without readline facilities, but that's does not matter)...

ubuntu@ubuntu:~$ cd /tmp
ubuntu@ubuntu:/tmp$ PS1="${debian_chroot:+($debian_chroot)}\[\e[1;32m\]\u\[\e[0m\]@\[\e[1;32m\]\h\[\e[0m\]:\[\e[1;34m\]\w\[\e[0m\]$ "
ubuntu@ubuntu:/tmp$ 

(Last line print both ubuntu in green, @, : and $ in black and path (/tmp) in blue)

ubuntu@ubuntu:/tmp$ exit
ubuntu@ubuntu:/tmp$ od -A n -t c <<< $ExpPS1 
 033   [   1   ;   3   2   m   u   b   u   n   t   u 033   [   0
   m   @ 033   [   1   ;   3   2   m   u   b   u   n   t   u 033
   [   0   m   : 033   [   1   ;   3   4   m   ~ 033   [   0   m
   $  \n

Pure bash

ExpPS1="$(bash --rcfile <(echo "PS1='$PS1'") -i <<<'' 2>&1)"
ExpPS1_W="${ExpPS1%exit}"
ExpPS1="${ExpPS1_W##*$'\n'}"
ExpPS1_L=${ExpPS1_W%$'\n'$ExpPS1}
while [ "${ExpPS1_W%$'\n'$ExpPS1}" = "$ExpPS1_W" ] ||
      [ "${ExpPS1_L%$'\n'$ExpPS1}" = "$ExpPS1_L" ] ;do
    ExpPS1_P="${ExpPS1_L##*$'\n'}"
    ExpPS1_L=${ExpPS1_L%$'\n'$ExpPS1_P}
    ExpPS1="$ExpPS1_P"$'\n'"$ExpPS1"
  done

The while loop is required to ensure correct handling of multiline prompts:

replace 1st line by:

ExpPS1="$(bash --rcfile <(echo "PS1='${debian_chroot:+($debian_chroot)}\[\e[1;32m\]\u\[\e[0m\]@\[\e[1;32m\]\h\[\e[0m\]:\[\e[1;34m\]\w\[\e[0m\]$ '") -i <<<'' 2>&1)"

or

ExpPS1="$(bash --rcfile <(echo "PS1='Test string\n$(date)\n$PS1'") -i <<<'' 2>&1)";

The last multiline will print:

echo "$ExpPS1"
Test string
Tue May 10 11:04:54 UTC 2016
ubuntu@ubuntu:~$ 

od -A n -t c  <<<${ExpPS1}
   T   e   s   t       s   t   r   i   n   g  \r       T   u   e
       M   a   y       1   0       1   1   :   0   4   :   5   4
       U   T   C       2   0   1   6  \r     033   ]   0   ;   u
   b   u   n   t   u   @   u   b   u   n   t   u   :       ~  \a
   u   b   u   n   t   u   @   u   b   u   n   t   u   :   ~   $
  \n