Some fun things you can do to pimp your OSX Terminal: (I'm using Mountain Lion fyi)

Customize Terminal Prompt with Emoji

Add this line to ~/.bash_profile (Note: You should see the yellow emoji with shade below)

export PS1='\[\e[0;37m\]⌘ \[\e[1;36m\]\W\[\e[1;33m\] <put_emoji_here>  \[\e[0m\]'

Replace <put_emoji_here> with any emoji you want. Alt+Command+T to open emoji window. Above line not only adds emoji, but also remove name and hostname, and only show current directory name (not full path). Read here for more information.

Set Current Directory as Terminal's Tab Title

By default, the tab's title is 'bash' and it doesn't change. The window title does change. To make tab's title changes to current directory automatically, add this line to ~/.bash_profile

PROMPT_COMMAND='update_terminal_cwd; echo -ne "\033]0; ${PWD##*/}\007"'

Show Git Branch on Terminal Prompt

For developers, add this function to ~/.bash_profile

parse_git_branch() {
    git branch --no-color 2> /dev/null | sed -e '/^[^*]/d' -e 's/* \(.*\)/\ <emoji> \ \1/'
}

then update the PS1

export PS1='\[\e[0;37m\]⌘ \[\e[1;36m\]\W\[\e[1;33m\]$(parse_git_branch) <emoji>  \[\e[0m\]'

Show Random Quote on Terminal New Session

Install fortune

sudo port install fortune

Add this line to ~/.bash_profile

echo -e "\n\x1B[00;33m$(fortune)\x1B[00m\n"

Remember to restart the Terminal everytime you make changes. If you want to change some colors, check here.

If you like this post, you might want to take a look at NSMeme Facebook Page I made to share some interesting stuff in iOS development.