SSH, Forgetfulness, and PS1

[SlowCoder]

I like to use a rather minimal PS1 prompt. I usually know who I am, and where I am, so there's no sense including \u or \h. The PS1 on all my systems is:

PS1="${fgYellow}${italic}\w${fgWhite} \$ ${noColor}"

What happens when I SSH to another PC? Well, visual markers for who and where I am are minimal. There's been a few times I've forgotten where I was and modified the wrong this or that on the wrong PC.

What was my fix? I found the $SSH_CONNECTION variable that only exists inside an SSH session. So I leveraged it, and added the following code to my .bashrc:

# if terminal is SSH, add user/host
if [[ -n $SSH_CONNECTION ]]
then
    PS1="< ${fgLightRed}SSH:\u@\h${noColor} >\n$PS1"
fi

Note: Unrelated, but needed for colorization, I also have color definitions in my .bashrc file. Some folks might also find them useful.

This is the end result, and makes my SSH prompts much more readable, while still allowing me to stay minimal:

# foreground colors
    fgBlack="\[\e[0;30m\]"
    fgRed="\[\e[0;31m\]"
    fgGreen="\[\e[0;32m\]"
    fgBrown="\[\e[0;33m\]"
    fgBlue="\[\e[0;34m\]"
    fgPurple="\[\e[0;35m\]"
    fgCyan="\[\e[0;36m\]"
    fgGray="\[\e[0;37m\]"
    fgDarkGray="\[\e[1;30m\]"
    fgLightRed="\[\e[1;31m\]"
    fgLightGreen="\[\e[1;32m\]"
    fgYellow="\[\e[1;33m\]"
    fgLightBlue="\[\e[1;34m\]"
    fgLightPurple="\[\e[1;35m\]"
    fgLightCyan="\[\e[1;36m\]"
    fgWhite="\[\e[1;37m\]"
# background colors
    bgBlack="\[\e[40m\]"
    bgRed="\[\e[41m\]"
    bgGreen="\[\e[42m\]"
    bgBrown="\[\e[43m\]"
    bgBlue="\[\e[44m\]"
    bgPurple="\[\e[45m\]"
    bgCyan="\[\e[46m\]"
    bgGray="\[\e[47m\]"
    bgDarkGray="\[\e[100m\]"
    bgLightRed="\[\e[101m\]"
    bgLightGreen="\[\e[102m\]"
    bgYellow="\[\e[103m\]"
    bgLightBlue="\[\e[104m\]"
    bgLightPurple="\[\e[105m\]"
    bgLightCyan="\[\e[106m\]"
    bgWhite="\[\e[107m\]"
# color reset
    noColor="\[\e[0m\]" # reset to default
# styles
    italic="\[\e[3m\]"
# other
    clearLineToEnd="\[\e[K\]" # clear line to end, with current color

PS1="${fgYellow}${italic}\w${fgWhite} \$ ${noColor}"

# if terminal is SSH, add user/host
if [[ -n $SSH_CONNECTION ]]
then
    PS1="< ${fgLightRed}SSH:\u@\h${noColor} >\n$PS1"
fi

Example Output:

< SSH:SlowCoder@Zeus >
~/Documents $