From owner-freebsd-questions  Mon Aug 25 09:07:51 1997
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Date: Mon, 25 Aug 1997 09:06:51 -0700 (MST)
From: Charles Mott <cmott@snake.srv.net>
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To: Sheldon Hearn <axl@iafrica.com>
cc: freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG
Subject: Re: su and PS1
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On Mon, 25 Aug 1997, Sheldon Hearn wrote:
> 
> This is from su(1) under 2.2-STABLE :
> 
> | By default (unless the prompt is reset by a startup file) the super-user
> | prompt is set to ``#'' to remind one of its awesome power.
> 
> The su program doesn't actually appear to do this. Even if su is run 
> with -l (emulate full login) PS1 is only affected by .profile commands, 
> not by su itself.
> 
> Is the man page wrong / out of date or is su simply not doing what it's 
> supposed to with the command prompt? Or have I misunderstood how the 
> command prompt is manipulated (some way other than with PS1)?

If you are using bash, and PS1='\$', then the prompt will be $ for a
normal user account and # after su to root.  This is described in the bash
man page.  I don't know how the other shells handle this.

Charles Mott