zsh prompt and hostname

Question

I use the following prompt in .zshrc:

PROMPT=\"%{$fg[magenta]%}%n%{$reset_color%}@%{$fg[blue]%}%m %{$fg[yellow]%}%1~ %{$reset_color%}%# \"

When

Answer 1

It's a bit of a mess, but you can pretend the %m is a parameter and use parameter expansion to strip the zoltan from the host name:

PROMPT="...${${(%):-%m}#1} ..."

A little explanation. First, you create a "parameter" expansion that doesn't actually have a parameter name; it just uses the text you provide as the "value":

${:-%m}

Next, add the % expansion flag so that any prompt escapes found in the value are processed.

${(%):-%m}

Finally, next it in a final expansion that uses the # operator to remove a prefix from the string:

${${(%):-%m}#zoltan-}

You can tame your prompt a bit by building up piece by piece (and use zsh's prompt escapes to handle the color changes, rather than embedding terminal control sequences explicitly).

PROMPT="%F{magenta}%n%f"  # Magenta user name
PROMPT+="@"
PROMPT+="%F{blue}${${(%):-%m}#zoltan-}%f" # Blue host name, minus zoltan
PROMPT+=" "
PROMPT+="%F{yellow}%1~ %f" # Yellow working directory
PROMPT+=" %# "