Appendix: Terminal Customization (Optional)¶

Optional terminal enhancements for advanced users.

Note: These customizations are NOT required for SimToFly tutorials. Only apply if you want to personalize your terminal experience.

Enable Color Prompt¶

sed -i 's/#force_color_prompt=yes/force_color_prompt=yes/' ~/.bashrc
source ~/.bashrc

Result: Terminal prompt shows colors.

Add Useful Aliases¶

nano ~/.bashrc

Add at bottom:

# Useful aliases
alias ll='ls -lah'
alias update='sudo apt update && sudo apt upgrade -y'
alias workspace='cd ~/simtofly_ws'

Save, then:

source ~/.bashrc

Increase Terminal History¶

echo 'HISTSIZE=10000' >> ~/.bashrc
echo 'HISTFILESIZE=20000' >> ~/.bashrc
source ~/.bashrc

Saves last 10,000 commands instead of default 500.

Show Git Branch in Prompt¶

nano ~/.bashrc

Add at bottom:

# Show git branch in prompt
parse_git_branch() {
    git branch 2> /dev/null | sed -e '/^[^*]/d' -e 's/* \(.*\)/(\1)/'
}
export PS1="\u@\h:\w\$(parse_git_branch)\$ "

Save, then:

source ~/.bashrc

← Back to 1.2 Environment Setup