====== Fancy prompt cookbook ======

It is nice to make your bash prompt look good.  Here is a base script that defines all the ANSI colors as variables and sets up a clear PS1 prompt variable.  I usually save this as ".bashprompt" and source it from ".bashrc".

<code bash>R="\[\e[m\]"
RESET="\[\e[m\]"
BOLD="\[\e[1m\]"
FAINT="\[\e[2m\]"
UNDERLINE="\[\e[4m\]"
REVERSE="\[\e[7m\]"
STRIKEOUT="\[\e[9m\]"
LO_BLACK="\[\e[30m\]"
LO_RED="\[\e[31m\]"
LO_GREEN="\[\e[32m\]"
LO_YELLOW="\[\e[33m\]"
LO_BLUE="\[\e[34m\]"
LO_MAGENTA="\[\e[35m\]"
LO_CYAN="\[\e[36m\]"
LO_WHITE="\[\e[37m\]"
HI_BLACK="\[\e[30;90m\]"
HI_RED="\[\e[31;91m\]"
HI_GREEN="\[\e[32;92m\]"
HI_YELLOW="\[\e[33;93m\]"
HI_BLUE="\[\e[34;94m\]"
HI_MAGENTA="\[\e[35;95m\]"
HI_CYAN="\[\e[36;96m\]"
HI_WHITE="\[\e[37;97m\]"
BG_BLACK="\[\e[40m\]"
BG_RED="\[\e[41m\]"
BG_GREEN="\[\e[42m\]"
BG_YELLOW="\[\e[43m\]"
BG_BLUE="\[\e[44m\]"
BG_MAGENTA="\[\e[45m\]"
BG_CYAN="\[\e[46m\]"
BG_WHITE="\[\e[47m\]"


# ======================= BASH PROMPT ESCAPE CODES  ==========================
# == Time & Date ==
# \t Time in 24-hour HH:MM:SS format    \T Time in 12-hour HH:MM:SS format   
# \A Time in 24-hour HH:MM format       \@ Time in 12-hour HH:MM AP format
# \d Date, e.g. "Tue May 26"             
# 
# == Characters ==
# \a ASCII bell                         \e ASCII escape character
# \n Newline                            \r Carriage return
# \[ Start of non-printing characters   \] End of non-printing characters
# \\ A backslash
# 
# == Shell Info ==
# \v Short version (e.g. "4.0")         \V Long version (e.g. "4.0.33")
# \! History number of this command     \# Command number of this command
# \j Number of jobs                     \l Basename of the shell's terminal device
# \s Shell name (e.g. "bash")                  
# 
# == Current Environment ==
# \h Short hostname                     \H Full hostname
# \w Current working directory          \W Basename of the current directory
# \u Current username
# \$ Shell prompt (either '$' or '#')
# 

if [ `whoami` = "root" ]
then
	export PS1="$BG_RED$HI_YELLOW\u${HI_WHITE}@${HI_YELLOW}\h$HI_BLACK:$HI_GREEN\w $HI_WHITE\$$R "
else
	#export PS1="$BG_BLUE$LO_CYAN\u${HI_CYAN}@${LO_CYAN}\h$HI_BLACK:$HI_GREEN\w $HI_WHITE\$$R "
	#export PS1="$BG_BLUE$LO_MAGENTA\u${HI_MAGENTA}@${LO_MAGENTA}\h$HI_BLACK:$HI_GREEN\w $HI_WHITE\$$R "
	export PS1="$BG_BLUE$LO_GREEN\u${HI_GREEN}@${LO_GREEN}\h$HI_BLACK:$HI_GREEN\w $HI_WHITE\$$R "
fi

unset R RESET BOLD FAINT UNDERLINE REVERSE STRIKEOUT LO_BLACK LO_RED LO_GREEN LO_YELLOW LO_BLUE LO_MAGENTA LO_CYAN LO_WHITE 
unset HI_BLACK HI_RED HI_GREEN HI_YELLOW HI_BLUE HI_MAGENTA HI_CYAN HI_WHITE BG_BLACK BG_RED BG_GREEN BG_YELLOW BG_BLUE BG_MAGENTA BG_CYAN BG_WHITE

</code>

Also, if your environment isn't updating the tab titles in your graphical terminal, you can append the following line to fix that:
<code bash>
export PS1="\[\e]0;\u@\h:\w\a\]$PS1"
</code>