Of course, most Solaris users are at an advanced level and those little nice things in a Linux console don’t matter that much. But I like to be more productive and enjoy using all the features I can get from a console. So here’s how I am customizing my Solaris console:

1. I am using bash – this brings most of the features I enjoy: auto-complete at TAB and previous commands list being the most important. To enable bash you have to edit the file “/etc/passwd” like this (note the path to the console at the end):

username:x:100:100:NameOfUser:/homepath:/bin/bash

2. I am making vim work – vim is my preferred editor on Unix. For that, I must install vim (using Blastwave) and put the path in the PATH variable. See number 3 for this. After making vim work, I am setting it to work as I like – like on a Linux console :). To do that, I am creating a file named .vimrc in my home folder with the following content:

set nocompatible " must be the first line
:syntax enable
filetype on
filetype indent on
filetype plugin on
set laststatus=2
set statusline=%<%f\%h%m%r%=%-20.(line=%l\ \ col=%c%V\ \ totlin=%L%)\ \ \%h%m%r%=%-40(bytval=0x%B,%n%Y%)\%P
set backspace=2

3. I am configuring the console to set vim as the default editor, to set the PATH with everything I need, to set the pager with more and to configure the shell prompt. For this, I am creating a file name .profile (or edit if existing) with the following content:

export PATH=/usr/bin:/opt/csw/bin
export TERM=linux
export PAGER=more
export EDITOR=vim
export PS1='[\u@\h \w]\$ '

So… this is it! Now I have a much nicer console!

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Filed under:
Server administration, Technology by Myself