FG
💻 Software

Custom prompt botched during history and control-a in OS X's Terminal.app using Bash

Fresh5 days ago
Mar 15, 2026461 views
Confidence Score0%
0%

Problem

I customized my prompt in .bash_profile to look like this: Now, when I press up arrow to go back through history, find the one I want, then press control-a to go to the beginning of the line, it often stops me at the 5th character instead of going all the way to the beginning. Those first few chara…

Error Output

export PS1="\w \e[0;32m\$(vcprompt -f '[%n:%b]')\e[m\$ "

Unverified for your environment

Select your OS to check compatibility.

1 Fix

Canonical Fix
Unverified Fix
New Fix – Awaiting Verification

Fix for: Custom prompt botched during history and control-a in OS X's Terminal.app using Bash

Low Risk

You need to mark the nonprinting sections of the prompt with ... so bash can tell they won't take up space on screen. Try:

Awaiting Verification

Be the first to verify this fix

Sign in to verify this fix

Environment