RFC: root/non-root bash prompts different colours?

[Stuart Children]

Tim Waugh wrote:
> Should we implement a scheme to differentiate root/non-root bash
> prompts by colour?

Don't the colour escape sequences break (FSVO break) some terminals? 
Could be annoying for people connecting in from other systems.

I'd say no regardless. It's too dificult to choose appropriate colours. 
If you really wanted to do this then bold might be more suitable (though 
still has the above issue). However, I don't know that either of them 
necessarily make it clear to the user "this is a root shell, it can be 
used to destory your system".

Personally, I think the current \u and \$ in the prompt are sufficient 
to determine that the shell has changed and you are now root. Though I 
would agree that \$ doesn't do this by itself. If all you want to do is 
draw more attention to the fact that the shell has changed, or which one 
you're currently in (trying to help people not type into the wrong 
terminal for example), then you could just make the prompts just look a 
bit more different. Eg: "\u@\h \W \$" for regular users, "[[[SUPERUSER 
\u@\h \W]]]\$" for root.

If the main point is trying to alert the user to the fact that it's far 
easier to do damage when you're root then whey not have a message in 
su/sudo that gets printed if it's attached to a terminal? Though I think 
if someone's managed to find that out how to become root on the command 
line they should be aware enough of what they're doing.

My vote is change nothing.

-- 
Stuart