Detect empty command

Question

Consider this PS1

PS1='\n${_:+$? }$ '

Here is the result of a few commands

$ [ 2 = 2 ]

0 $ [ 2 = 3 ]

1 $

1 $

The first line shows no status as expected, and the next two lines show the correct exit code. However on line 3 only Enter was pressed, so I would like the status to go away, like line 1. How can I do this?

Answer 1

Here's a funny, very simple possibility: it uses the \# escape sequence of PS1 together with parameter expansions (and the way Bash expands its prompt).

The escape sequence \# expands to the command number of the command to be executed. This is incremented each time a command has actually been executed. Try it:

$ PS1='\# $ '
2 $ echo hello
hello
3 $ # this is a comment
3 $
3 $    echo hello
hello
4 $

Now, each time a prompt is to be displayed, Bash first expands the escape sequences found in PS1, then (provided the shell option promptvars is set, which is the default), this string is expanded via parameter expansion, command substitution, arithmetic expansion, and quote removal.

The trick is then to have an array that will have the k-th field set (to the empty string) whenever the (k-1)-th command is executed. Then, using appropriate parameter expansions, we'll be able to detect when these fields are set and to display the return code of the previous command if the field isn't set. If you want to call this array __cmdnbary, just do:

PS1='\n${__cmdnbary[\#]-$? }${__cmdnbary[\#]=}\$ '

Look:

$ PS1='\n${__cmdnbary[\#]-$? }${__cmdnbary[\#]=}\$ '

0 $ [ 2 = 3 ]

1 $ 

$ # it seems that it works

$     echo "it works"
it works

0 $

---

To qualify for the shortest answer challenge:

PS1='\n${a[\#]-$? }${a[\#]=}$ '

that's 31 characters.

Don't use this, of course, as a is a too trivial name; also, \$ might be better than $.

---

Seems you don't like that the initial prompt is 0 $; you can very easily modify this by initializing the array __cmdnbary appropriately: you'll put this somewhere in your configuration file:

__cmdnbary=( '' '' ) # Initialize the field 1!
PS1='\n${__cmdnbary[\#]-$? }${__cmdnbary[\#]=}\$ '

Answer 2

The variable HISTCMD is updated every time a new command is executed. Unfortunately, the value is masked during the execution of PROMPT_COMMAND (I suppose for reasons related to not having history messed up with things which happen in the prompt command). The workaround I came up with is kind of messy, but it seems to work in my limited testing.

# This only works if the prompt has a prefix
# which is displayed before the status code field.
# Fortunately, in this case, there is one.
# Maybe use a no-op prefix in the worst case (!)
PS1_base=$'\n'

# Functions for PROMPT_COMMAND
PS1_update_HISTCMD () {
    # If HISTCONTROL contains "ignoredups" or "ignoreboth", this breaks.
    # We should not change it programmatically
    # (think principle of least astonishment etc)
    # but we can always gripe.
    case :$HISTCONTROL: in
      *:ignoredups:* | *:ignoreboth:* )
        echo "PS1_update_HISTCMD(): HISTCONTROL contains 'ignoredups' or 'ignoreboth'" >&2
        echo "PS1_update_HISTCMD(): Warning: Please remove this setting." >&2 ;;
    esac
    # PS1_HISTCMD needs to contain the old value of PS1_HISTCMD2 (a copy of HISTCMD)
    PS1_HISTCMD=${PS1_HISTCMD2:-$PS1_HISTCMD}
    # PS1_HISTCMD2 needs to be unset for the next prompt to trigger properly
    unset PS1_HISTCMD2
}

PROMPT_COMMAND=PS1_update_HISTCMD

# Finally, the actual prompt:
PS1='${PS1_base#foo${PS1_HISTCMD2:=${HISTCMD%$PS1_HISTCMD}}}${_:+${PS1_HISTCMD2:+$? }}$ '

The logic in the prompt is roughly as follows:

${PS1_base#foo...}

This displays the prefix. The stuff in #... is useful only for its side effects. We want to do some variable manipulation without having the values of the variables display, so we hide them in a string substitution. (This will display odd and possibly spectacular things if the value of PS1_base ever happens to begin with foo followed by the current command history index.)

${PS1_HISTCMD2:=...}

This assigns a value to PS1_HISTCMD2 (if it is unset, which we have made sure it is). The substitution would nominally also expand to the new value, but we have hidden it in a ${var#subst} as explained above.

${HISTCMD%$PS1_HISTCMD}

We assign either the value of HISTCMD (when a new entry in the command history is being made, i.e. we are executing a new command) or an empty string (when the command is empty) to PS1_HISTCMD2. This works by trimming off the value HISTCMD any match on PS1_HISTCMD (using the ${var%subst} suffix replacement syntax).

${_:+...}

This is from the question. It will expand to ... something if the value of $_ is set and nonempty (which it is when a command is being executed, but not e.g. if we are performing a variable assignment). The "something" should be the status code (and a space, for legibility) if PS1_HISTCMD2 is nonempty.

${PS1_HISTCMD2:+$? }

There.

'$ '

This is just the actual prompt suffix, as in the original question.

So the key parts are the variables PS1_HISTCMD which remembers the previous value of HISTCMD, and the variable PS1_HISTCMD2 which captures the value of HISTCMD so it can be accessed from within PROMPT_COMMAND, but needs to be unset in the PROMPT_COMMAND so that the ${PS1_HISTCMD2:=...} assignment will fire again the next time the prompt is displayed.

I fiddled for a bit with trying to hide the output from ${PS1_HISTCMD2:=...} but then realized that there is in fact something we want to display anyhow, so just piggyback on that. You can't have a completely empty PS1_base because the shell apparently notices, and does not even attempt to perform a substitution when there is no value; but perhaps you can come up with a dummy value (a no-op escape sequence, perhaps?) if you have nothing else you want to display. Or maybe this could be refactored to run with a suffix instead; but that is probably going to be trickier still.

In response to Anubhava's "smallest answer" challenge, here is the code without comments or error checking.

PS1_base=$'\n'
PS1_update_HISTCMD () { PS1_HISTCMD=${PS1_HISTCMD2:-$PS1_HISTCMD}; unset PS1_HISTCMD2; }
PROMPT_COMMAND=PS1_update_HISTCMD
PS1='${PS1_base#foo${PS1_HISTCMD2:=${HISTCMD%$PS1_HISTCMD}}}${_:+${PS1_HISTCMD2:+$? }}$ '

Answer 3

This is probably not the best way to do this, but it seems to be working

function pc {
  foo=$_
  fc -l > /tmp/new
  if cmp -s /tmp/{new,old} || test -z "$foo"
  then
    PS1='\n$ '
  else
    PS1='\n$? $ '
  fi
  cp /tmp/{new,old}
}
PROMPT_COMMAND=pc

Result

$ [ 2 = 2 ]

0 $ [ 2 = 3 ]

1 $

$

Answer 4

Got some time to play around this weekend. Looking at my earlier answer (not-good) and other answers I think this may be probably the smallest answer.

Place these lines at the end of your ~/.bash_profile:

PS1='$_ret$ '
trapDbg() {
   local c="$BASH_COMMAND"
   [[ "$c" != "pc" ]] && export _cmd="$c"
}
pc() {
   local r=$?
   trap "" DEBUG
   [[ -n "$_cmd" ]] && _ret="$r " || _ret=""
   export _ret
   export _cmd=
   trap 'trapDbg' DEBUG
}
export PROMPT_COMMAND=pc
trap 'trapDbg' DEBUG

Then open a new terminal and note this desired behavior on BASH prompt:

$ uname
Darwin
0 $
$
$
$ date
Sun Dec 14 05:59:03 EST 2014
0 $
$
$ [ 1 = 2 ]
1 $
$
$ ls 123
ls: cannot access 123: No such file or directory
2 $
$

Explanation:

• This is based on trap 'handler' DEBUG and PROMPT_COMMAND hooks.
• PS1 is using a variable _ret i.e. PS1='$_ret$ '.
• trap command runs only when a command is executed but PROMPT_COMMAND is run even when an empty enter is pressed.
• trap command sets a variable _cmd to the actually executed command using BASH internal var BASH_COMMAND.
• PROMPT_COMMAND hook sets _ret to "$? " if _cmd is non-empty otherwise sets _ret to "". Finally it resets _cmd var to empty state.

Answer 5

I need to use great script bash-preexec.sh.

Although I don't like external dependencies, this was the only thing to help me avoid to have 1 in $? after just pressing enter without running any command.

This goes to your ~/.bashrc:

__prompt_command() {
    local exit="$?"
    PS1='\u@\h: \w \$ '
    [ -n "$LASTCMD" -a "$exit" != "0" ] && PS1='['${red}$exit$clear"] $PS1"
}
PROMPT_COMMAND=__prompt_command

[-f ~/.bash-preexec.sh ] && . ~/.bash-preexec.sh
preexec() { LASTCMD="$1"; }

UPDATE: later I was able to find a solution without dependency on .bash-preexec.sh.