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<TITLE>RE: [TriLUG] BASH Question: Putting relative local time and user environment v ariables in the prompt</TITLE>
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<P><FONT SIZE=2>The timezone to use is not my decision, and the problem provides the opportunity for some much needed practice with the shell...</FONT></P>
<P><FONT SIZE=2>If I can't work it out with a few more hours, I'll abandon the problem and move on...</FONT>
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<P><FONT SIZE=2>Jaimie</FONT>
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<P><FONT SIZE=2>-----Original Message-----</FONT>
<BR><FONT SIZE=2>From: Jon Carnes [<A HREF="mailto:jonc@nc.rr.com">mailto:jonc@nc.rr.com</A>] </FONT>
<BR><FONT SIZE=2>Sent: Friday, September 27, 2002 8:23 PM</FONT>
<BR><FONT SIZE=2>To: trilug@trilug.org</FONT>
<BR><FONT SIZE=2>Subject: Re: [TriLUG] BASH Question: Putting relative local time and user environment v ariables in the prompt</FONT>
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<P><FONT SIZE=2>On Fri, 2002-09-27 at 16:26, Jaimie Livingston wrote:</FONT>
<BR><FONT SIZE=2>> Here's the situation...</FONT>
<BR><FONT SIZE=2>> I have an OpenBSD system that is used by several staffers in the US </FONT>
<BR><FONT SIZE=2>> and Europe. The server is set to use GMT as the localtime, but I would </FONT>
<BR><FONT SIZE=2>> like to have a bash prompt that displays the users time for their </FONT>
<BR><FONT SIZE=2>> timezone.</FONT>
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<P><FONT SIZE=2>Boy talk about a waste of time...</FONT>
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<P><FONT SIZE=2>If this is the server that I'm thinking of, then it really doesn't need to be set to GMT, you can save yourself some grief and set the server to the proper timezone.</FONT></P>
<P><FONT SIZE=2>> </FONT>
<BR><FONT SIZE=2>> I assume, possibly incorrectly, that I will have to set the TZ environ </FONT>
<BR><FONT SIZE=2>> variable for the user via a login script, and then use /t (or /T, or </FONT>
<BR><FONT SIZE=2>> /@) to display the time in the prompt, and echo the setting for the TZ </FONT>
<BR><FONT SIZE=2>> environ variable to indicate their timezone.</FONT>
<BR><FONT SIZE=2>> </FONT>
<BR><FONT SIZE=2>> I have two problems:</FONT>
<BR><FONT SIZE=2>> 1) I can't figure out which dot file I should set the TZ prompt from.</FONT>
<BR><FONT SIZE=2>> I've tried the following (assuming US Eastern as the timezone):</FONT>
<BR><FONT SIZE=2>> in .bashrc and .bash_profile</FONT>
<BR><FONT SIZE=2>> TZ=:/US/Eastern </FONT>
<BR><FONT SIZE=2>> and</FONT>
<BR><FONT SIZE=2>> TZ=/usr/share/zoneinfo/US/Eastern</FONT>
<BR><FONT SIZE=2>> </FONT>
<BR><FONT SIZE=2>> in .login and .profile</FONT>
<BR><FONT SIZE=2>> TZ=:/US/Eastern</FONT>
<BR><FONT SIZE=2>> export TZ</FONT>
<BR><FONT SIZE=2>> and</FONT>
<BR><FONT SIZE=2>> TZ=/usr/share/zoneinfo/US/Eastern</FONT>
<BR><FONT SIZE=2>> export TZ</FONT>
<BR><FONT SIZE=2>> </FONT>
<BR><FONT SIZE=2>> But to no avail. The time is still returned using GMT as set with </FONT>
<BR><FONT SIZE=2>> /etc/localtime.</FONT>
<BR><FONT SIZE=2>> Perhaps I am misreading the various Bash HOWTO's...</FONT>
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<P><FONT SIZE=2>Modifying the TZ variable doesn't seem to do anything to the time displayed by my bash prompt... I'm using bash version 2.05.1</FONT></P>
<P><FONT SIZE=2>> </FONT>
<BR><FONT SIZE=2>> 2) I don't know how to echo the TZ environment variable in a prompt, </FONT>
<BR><FONT SIZE=2>> can't find a reference for doing it, and don't even know if it's </FONT>
<BR><FONT SIZE=2>> possible... Any information you can provide would be helpful...</FONT>
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<P><FONT SIZE=2>You can look at all the environment variables by simply typing "set". If you want to isolate the TZ variable then, "set |grep TZ".</FONT></P>
<P><FONT SIZE=2>===</FONT>
<BR><FONT SIZE=2>I can think of one way to do this - but it's not worth the effort... </FONT>
<BR><FONT SIZE=2>I read an article about two years ago that detailed how to run a program/script with every prompt, and display the output as part of the prompt.</FONT></P>
<P><FONT SIZE=2>I think the author wanted to display the size of the directory on the prompt. Then he could simply "cd" to a directory to see how much space was used there. </FONT></P>
<P><FONT SIZE=2>I remember thinking that it was a stupid bash trick!</FONT>
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<P><FONT SIZE=2>Jon</FONT>
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