# Shell prompts

Note

Powerline can operate without a background daemon, but the shell performance can be very slow. The Powerline daemon improves this performance significantly, but must be started separately. It is advised to add

    powerline-daemon -q

before any other powerline-related code in the shell configuration file.

## Bash prompt

Add the following line to the `bashrc`, where `{repository_root}` is the absolute path to the Powerline installation directory (see repository root):

    . {repository_root}/powerline/bindings/bash/powerline.sh

Note

Since without powerline daemon bash bindings are very slow PS2 (continuation) and PS3 (select) prompts are not set up. Thus it is advised to use

    powerline-daemon -q
    POWERLINE_BASH_CONTINUATION=1
    POWERLINE_BASH_SELECT=1
    . {repository_root}/powerline/bindings/bash/powerline.sh

in the bash configuration file. Without `POWERLINE_BASH_*` variables PS2 and PS3 prompts are computed exactly once at bash startup.

Warning

At maximum bash continuation PS2 and select PS3 prompts are computed each time main PS1 prompt is computed. Thus putting e.g. current time into PS2 or PS3 prompt will not work as expected.

At minimum they are computed once on startup.

## Zsh prompt

Add the following line to the `zshrc`, where `{repository_root}` is the absolute path to the Powerline installation directory (see repository root):

    . {repository_root}/powerline/bindings/zsh/powerline.zsh

## Fish prompt

Add the following line to `config.fish`, where `{repository_root}` is the absolute path to the Powerline installation directory (see repository root):

    set fish_function_path $fish_function_path "{repository_root}/powerline/bindings/fish"
    powerline-setup

Warning

Fish is supported only starting from version 2.1.

## Rcsh prompt

Powerline supports Plan9 rc reimplementation by Byron Rakitzis packaged by many *nix distributions. To use it add

    . {repository_root}/powerline/bindings/rc/powerline.rc

(`{repository_root}` is the absolute path to the Powerline installation directory, see repository root) to `rcrc` file (usually `~/.rcrc`) and make sure `rc` is started as a login shell (with `-l` argument): otherwise this configuration file is not read.

Warning

Original Plan9 shell and its *nix port are not supported because they are missing `prompt` special function (it is being called once before each non-continuation prompt). Since powerline could not support shell without this or equivalent feature some other not-so-critical features of that port were used.

## Busybox (ash), mksh and dash prompt

After launching busybox run the following command:

    . {repository_root}/powerline/bindings/shell/powerline.sh

where `{repository_root}` is the absolute path to the Powerline installation directory (see repository root).

Mksh users may put this line into `~/.mkshrc` file. Dash users may use the following in `~/.profile`:

    if test "$0" != "${0#dash}" ; then
        export ENV={repository_root}/powerline/bindings/shell/powerline.sh
    fi

Note

Dash users that already have `$ENV` defined should either put the `. …/shell/powerline.sh` line in the `$ENV` file or create a new file which will source (using `.` command) both former `$ENV` file and `powerline.sh` files and set `$ENV` to the path of this new file.

Warning

Mksh users have to set `$POWERLINE_SHELL_CONTINUATION` and `$POWERLINE_SHELL_SELECT` to 1 to get PS2 and PS3 (continuation and select) prompts support respectively: as command substitution is not performed in these shells for these prompts they are updated once each time PS1 prompt is displayed which may be slow.

It is also known that while PS2 and PS3 update is triggered at PS1 update it is actually performed only next time PS1 is displayed which means that PS2 and PS3 prompts will be outdated and may be incorrect for this reason.

Without these variables PS2 and PS3 prompts will be set once at startup. This only touches mksh users: busybox and dash both have no such problem.

Warning

Job count is using some weird hack that uses signals and temporary files for interprocess communication. It may be wrong sometimes. Not the case in mksh.

Warning

Busybox has two shells: `ash` and `hush`. Second is known to segfault in busybox 1.22.1 when using `powerline.sh` script.

## Python Virtual Environments (conda, pyenv)

If your system uses virtual environments to manage different Python versions, such as pyenv or anaconda, these tools will add a performance delay to every shell prompt. This delay can be bypassed by explicitly specifying your command path.

>     export POWERLINE_COMMAND={path_to_powerline}

where `{path_to_powerline}` is the full filepath for powerline. If you installed Powerline within an environment, you can find this path for pyenv with `pyenv which powerline` or for conda with `which powerline`.