bash prompt and echoing colors inside a function

Question

I have this in my .bashrc: ``` LIGHTGREEN="$$\033[1;32m$$" LIGHTRED="$$\033[1;31m$$" WHITE="$$\033[0;37m$$" RESET="$$\033[0;00m$$" function error_test { if [[ $? = "0" ]]; then echo -e "$LIGHTGREEN" else echo -e "$LIGHTRED" fi } PS1="\u\$(error_test)@\w$RESET \$ " ``` This seems to make the shell output exactly: `username@~/` The escaping [ and ] around the color codes are showing up in my prompt. If I remove the escape codes from around the colors it works, but then bash line wrapping fails stupendously. Note if do `PS1="LIGHTGREEN - whatever - $RESET"` it works and the [ and ] are not escaped. However, I want to do this inside a function, which seems to be the issue. I can't find any good documentation on this. `man echo` doesn't even list a -e option. Bash seems like it has a lot of undocumented, handmedown knowledge.

Accepted Answer

I found this topic looking for answer how to set bash color with escaping `` from bash function.

Actually there is solution. Bash allows to generate `PS1` prompt each time prompt is rendered.

```
set_bash_prompt(){
    PS1="\u@\h $(call_your_function) $>"
}

PROMPT_COMMAND=set_bash_prompt
```

This way, PS1 will be interpreted each time prompt will be displayed, so it will call function and render properly all escaping sequences including `` which are important for counting length of prompt (e.g. to make command history work correctly).

Hopefully this will help someone, as I spend half a day to solve this issue.

bash prompt and echoing colors inside a function

Solution

Problem