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bashcommand-promptbackground-process

update a variable in background in bashrc

I would like the variable NUSERS='who | wc -l' to be updated every 2 seconds in order to display the number of connected users in the prompt with PS1='\u@\h-${NUSERS}:\w $' defined in the .bashrc file.

I tryed: watch NUSERS='who | wc -l' &>/dev/null & in the .bashrc... it didn't work

I tryed: while true; do NUSERS='who | wc -l' && sleep 2; done & in the .bashrc ... it didn't work neither

I don't understand why this doesn't work. I would like to avoid screen and nohup because I don't want the command to run when I exit the ssh session.

Solution

  • actually, it is possible to insert a command directly in the PS1 variable declaration in the .bashrc file

    PS1='\u@\h-`who | wc -l`:\w $'