If you use the shell in Linux, Unix, the Mac, or any other *nix system, you really owe it to yourself to update the command line prompt. The default prompt is nearly worthless, and there are a lot of options available for making it better.

This article (http://www.ibm.com/developerworks/linux/library/l-tip-prompt/) provides a good primer on how to get started.

For me, I like to see my path in the prompt. But when I am in my root directory, I don't care about the full path, I only care about the part of the path under my root directory. If you want to give this a try, here's how to set your PS1 parameter:

PS1='${PWD##*rootDirName/}: '

where your replace rootDirName with the name of your root directory. For example, if the path to your root directory is: /users/tomp, you would replace rootDirName with tomp. Give it a try, I bet you'll like it better than the default prompt.