Change The Color of My Shell Prompt Under Linux or UNIX Permanently

$ cd
$ vi .bash_profile

OR
$ vi $HOME/.bashrc
Append the following line:
export PS1="\e[0;31m[\u@\h \W]\$ \e[m"
Save and close the file.

To do this changing you must logout an login again.

A list of color codes

Color	Code
Black	0;30
Blue	0;34
Green	0;32
Cyan	0;36
Red	0;31
Purple	0;35
Brown	0;33
Blue	0;34
Green	0;32
Cyan	0;36
Red	0;31
Purple	0;35
Brown	0;33

Note: You need to replace digit 0 with 1 to get light color version.

----------------------------- In Ubuntu 14.4 --------------------------

Run the following command in a terminal:

gedit ~/.bashrc

When .bashrc opens, locate and uncomment force_color_prompt=yes (that is, remove the hash, so it no longer looks like: #force_color_prompt=yes).

Save the file, and open a new terminal window, and you should already see a change (the prompt should be Light Green, which is defined by 1;32). You can then change any colour value you like; eg: 0;35 = Purple.

To edit the colour values, locate the following section, and change the default values with some of the examples listed further down:

if [ "$color_prompt" = yes ]; then
    PS1=’${debian_chroot:+($debian_chroot)}\[\033[01;32m\]\u@\h\[\033[00m\]:\[\033[01;31m\]\w\[\033[00m\]\$ ‘
else
    PS1=’${debian_chroot:+($debian_chroot)}\u@\h:\w\$ ‘
fi

You can check out this Bash colour chart for a full range of colour values, but here are a few basic ones you can play around with (note that “Light” isn’t what you might think – it actually means “bold”): Black 0;30 – Dark Gray 1;30 – Blue 0;34 – Light Blue 1;34 – Green 0;32 – Light Green 1;32 – Cyan 0;36 – Light Cyan 1;36 – Red 0;31 – Light Red 1;31 – Purple 0;35 – Light Purple 1;35 – Brown 0;33 – Yellow 1;33 – Light Gray 0;37 – White 1;37

For example, here is the line that I use it:

PS1='${debian_chroot:+($debian_chroot)}\[\033[01;35m\]\u@\h\[\033[00m\]:\[\033[01;34m\] \w\[\033[01;37m\] > '