tmck-code/dotfiles/linux-bashrc

linux-bashrc

Rules for safely modifying home/linux/.bashrc. The prompt is hot-path code — runs on every Enter — so correctness and zero-fork performance both matter.

Prompt invariants

The prompt is built by _mk_prompt, called via PROMPT_COMMAND=_mk_prompt. Do not prepend anything to PROMPT_COMMAND (e.g. PROMPT_COMMAND="history -a; $PROMPT_COMMAND") — it clobbers $? before _mk_prompt reads it. Put any pre-prompt work inside _mk_prompt.

_mk_prompt rules:

1. First line must be `local last_exit=$?`. Any earlier command resets $? to 0.
2. Second, capture the duration: local elapsed=$(( ${EPOCHREALTIME/./} - _PS0_TIME )) if _PS0_TIME is set; then unset _PS0_TIME. Start time is set by PS0 (see below).
3. Build the prompt by appending to a local prefix=(...) array, then assemble with "${prefix[@]}". Do not concatenate strings ad-hoc.
4. Honour HIDE — if test -v HIDE, set PS1="" and skip the prefix.

PS0 captures the command start time:

PS0=$'${_PS0_TIME:=${EPOCHREALTIME/./}}\r\e[K'

The \r\e[K overwrites the printed integer in the terminal. Do not remove it. Do not move the time capture into a DEBUG trap — measured ~6× slower (33 µs vs 5 µs per command) and fires per simple command in pipelines.

Colour conventions

Colours are declared once as exported vars at file scope:

PS1_green='\[\e[1;32m\]'
PS1_purple='\[\e[3;35m\]'
PS1_yellow_bg='\[\e[1;33m\]'
PS1_dim='\[\e[2;37m\]'
PS1_reset='\[\e[0m\]'

Rules:

• Every colour escape must be wrapped in \[ ... \] so readline counts width correctly.
• Always pair with ${PS1_reset} at the end of the coloured span.
• Add new colours to the same block, named PS1_<name>.
• Inside _mk_prompt's prefix array, reference the vars — do not inline \e[ codes.
• Exception: per-call dynamic colour (e.g. exit-code red vs green) may be a local exit_colour='\[\e[1;31m\]' inside _mk_prompt.

Performance rules

All existing code in this file has been benchmarked as the fastest known way to do its job. Do not modify any existing line without first confirming the replacement is equal-or-better in wall time. Use hyperfine (already installed) to compare:

hyperfine --warmup 100 'old approach' 'new approach'

If the new approach is slower, keep the old one — even if the new one looks cleaner. Document the benchmark result in the commit message when you change a hot-path line.

_mk_prompt runs on every Enter. Forks are expensive (~500 µs each, vs <10 µs for builtins). Rules:

• Use $EPOCHREALTIME (bash builtin), never date(1).
• Use bash arithmetic $(( ... )), never bc or awk, for prompt-time math. For the float-string EPOCHREALTIME, strip the dot: ${EPOCHREALTIME/./} gives integer microseconds.
• Prefer parameter expansion (${var/pattern/repl}, ${var:offset:length}) over sed/cut/tr subshells.
• Avoid $(...) command substitution in _mk_prompt unless it calls a pure-bash function.
• The existing gitbranch function reads .git/HEAD directly with read -r — do not replace with git calls.
• If you add a new segment that needs an external tool, put the call behind a guard (e.g. only run if a marker file exists in the repo).

When changing the prompt

Test by sourcing in a subshell and calling _mk_prompt with synthetic state:

bash --norc -c 'source home/linux/.bashrc 2>/dev/null
  _PS0_TIME=$(( ${EPOCHREALTIME/./} - 2540000 ))
  (exit 2); _mk_prompt; echo "[$PS1]"'

Verify exit colour, duration formatting (auto-scaled µs/ms/s/m), and that \[ \] wraps every escape.