How to stop execution of command from prompt in shell?

If you do:

PS1='$(set -x; sleep 3; echo STATUS)$ '

You'll see that ^C works. It's just that then bash tries to redraw a prompt and runs sleep 3 again.

Same goes in:

$ PROMPT_COMMAND='git_status=$(set -x; sleep 3; echo STATUS)' PS1='$git_status$ '

That can be worked around with:

PROMPT_COMMAND='
  interrupted=0
  trap interrupted=1 INT QUIT
  git_status=$(set -x; sleep 3; echo STATUS)
  trap - INT QUIT
  if (( interrupted )); then
    git_status+="<INTERRUPTED>"
  fi'
PS1='$git_status$ '

Where we add a handler on SIGINT. As the signal is handled and $PROMPT_COMMAND finishes normally, bash doesn't redraw the prompt. We can also add information that the command was interrupted in the prompt.

You'd replace set -x; sleep 3; echo STATUS here used as an example place holder with your git status or equivalent.

In zsh, you'd do something similar and a bit more cleanly with:

precmd() {
  set -o localoptions -o localtraps
  local interrupted=0
  trap interrupted=1 INT QUIT
  psvar[1]=$(set -x; sleep 3; echo STATUS)
  if (( interrupted )) psvar[1]+='<INTERRUPTED>'
}
PS1='%1v$ '

those commands are child processes of the shell in some form. if you pstree -p $$ that will list the processes running under your shell at the moment. you can then run a kill command which the same as Ctrl-C (SIGINT). Here is an example with a manually background command, but it should be the same for your prompt update. As an explanation the $$ is pstree is a substitute for the process id of the shell, and pstree will display all process in a parent/child relationship, and the -p option limits it to your current shell. Of course don't kill your shell pid, just the child you want to kill.

$ find / 2> /dev/null > /dev/null &
[1] 916595
$ pstree -p $$
bash(915332)─┬─find(916595)
             └─pstree(916598)
$ kill 916595
[1]+  Terminated              find / 2> /dev/null > /dev/null
$
`

Are you using bash (echo $0 to see)? If cd is not aliased to something else (try unalias cd or unset cd), then I suspect something in your shell's startup is causing this behavior. On bash, this could be in .profile, .bashrc, or system bashrc. On superuser, the advice is to use --noprofile --norc either when ssh'ing into a box, or when just invoking a new terminal from e.g., within your existing terminal. So,

• Start as just sh which invokes Bash without .bashrc. You can do this from within your "errant" terminal session
• ssh -t [email protected] and -t will bypass bashrc (have not tried)
• ssh [email protected] bash --noprofile --norc sounds safer (have not tried)