15

Assume that my username in Windows 7 is Caesar. When I open Git Bash I am greeted with something like

Caesar@COMPUTER-NAME$

Is it possible to change my username to be lowercase (so that it agrees with various Linux servers I have):

caesar@COMPUTER-NAME$

P.S. In cygwin, one can edit /etc/passwd in an obvious way to achieve this, but there is no such file for git bash (might be useful).

Improve this question

7 Answers 7

Reset to default
20

You can use the ssh_config facility to specify a different username. See an ssh_config manpage for details, but briefly:

Create the file ~/.ssh/config, and put just this line in it:

User caesar

If you have different usernames for different hosts, you can use the Host setting to specify different usernames, including the default one:

Host rome1
  User caesar
Host rome2
  User brutus
Host *
  User romeo

Normally, the ~/.ssh/config file has to have mode 600, but that doesn't seem to be necessary for the Git windows version.

Improve this answer
Sign up to request clarification or add additional context in comments.

2 Comments

Thank you for the answer, but this doesn't work. What can be reason?
@dondublon: if Linux, did you do chmod 600 ~/.ssh/config? It will be ignored otherwise. If not that, can you provide an example, or perhaps ask your own SO question?
15

To change windows username also with Git bash username (not for upper case):

  • Open Command prompt
  • Enter netplwiz
  • Select the windows user account and click the Properties button
  • Enter the new name for the account
  • Save and restart your computer
Improve this answer

2 Comments

To run "netplwiz" on a git bash terminal, I had to open it with administrator privileges.
This is the correct answer! CTRL + R > cmd > CTRL + SHIFT + ENTER > netplwiz
4

This thread is a few years old, but the correct answer is to change the value of the variable that holds that information.

If you modify the git-prompt.sh script a bit (for me, this is located in c:\Program Files(x86)\Git\etc\profile.d\git-prompt.sh), you can make the title anything you want.

Note: You will need to run VS Code, Notepad ++ or similar as administrator to write back to this directory.

PS1='\[\033]0;$TITLEPREFIX:$PWD\007\]' # set window title
PS1="$PS1"'\n'                 # new line
PS1="$PS1"'\[\033[32m\]'       # change to green
PS1="$PS1"'\u@\h '             # user@host<space>
PS1="$PS1"'\[\033[35m\]'       # change to purple
PS1="$PS1"'$MSYSTEM '          # show MSYSTEM
PS1="$PS1"'\[\033[33m\]'       # change to brownish yellow
PS1="$PS1"'\w'                 # current working directory

example:

...
PS1="$PS1"'STACKOVERFLOW@ABC '    # user@host<space>
...
PS1="$PS1"'LOL '                  # show MSYSTEM
...

console:

STACKOVERFLOW@ABC LOL /
$
Improve this answer

1 Comment

Since it's bash, you can use e.g. PS1+='\n\[\e[32m\]\u@\h ' # newline, green, user@host<space
1

It is based on what is set to the $PS1, which is what is used to display your prompt. The username@computername part would have been generated by a value like \u@\h$. I am not aware of easy ways to make \u value lowercase, but in your profile, you can do some processing with the username and use the necessary lowercase value ( or anything) that you want and set it to the $PS1

Improve this answer

1 Comment

This only changes the display. He wants the username itself changed so that it interacts nicely with other servers.
0

It is not exactly what you want, but you can also clone/edit your remotes to have the URL with the username included. Ex.: git clone ssh://[email protected]

Improve this answer

1 Comment

I am aware. This is what I was actually trying to avoid :)
0

On windows, you can achieve this by creating a file at C:\Users\{userName}\.config\git\ and inside this folder you can create a file with name git-prompt.sh.

Inside this file you can write following code

USER="Dev"                     # You can use any name you want to see in terminal

PS1='\[\033]0;$TITLEPREFIX:$PWD\007\]' # set window title
PS1="$PS1"'\n'                 # new line
PS1="$PS1"'\[\033[32m\]'       # change to green
PS1="$PS1"'$USER@\h '          # user@host<space>
PS1="$PS1"'\[\033[35m\]'       # change to purple
PS1="$PS1"'$MSYSTEM '          # show MSYSTEM
PS1="$PS1"'\[\033[33m\]'       # change to brownish yellow
PS1="$PS1"'\w'                 # current working directory
if test -z "$WINELOADERNOEXEC"
then
    GIT_EXEC_PATH="$(git --exec-path 2>/dev/null)"
    COMPLETION_PATH="${GIT_EXEC_PATH%/libexec/git-core}"
    COMPLETION_PATH="${COMPLETION_PATH%/lib/git-core}"
    COMPLETION_PATH="$COMPLETION_PATH/share/git/completion"
    if test -f "$COMPLETION_PATH/git-prompt.sh"
    then
        . "$COMPLETION_PATH/git-completion.bash"
        . "$COMPLETION_PATH/git-prompt.sh"
        PS1="$PS1"'\[\033[36m\]'  # change color to cyan
        PS1="$PS1"'`__git_ps1`'   # bash function
    fi
fi
PS1="$PS1"'\[\033[0m\]'        # change color
PS1="$PS1"'\n'                 # new line
PS1="$PS1"'$ '                 # prompt: always $

This file is basically used by git. If this file exits, git will look for this file else it will use default config present at C:\Program Files(x86)\Git\etc\profile.d\git-prompt.sh - for x86/32 bit system and c:\Program Files\Git\etc\profile.d\git-prompt.sh for a standard x64 bit system.

This above code snippet is also used from same file.

Improve this answer

Comments

0

Step-1 Just go to this location of your computer => C:\Program Files\Git\etc\profile.d

Step-2 There you will find a file "git-prompt.sh", open it with anything other than notepad.

Step-3 Then follow this step => https://ibb.co/xGxQ5Cf

The work is finished.

Or, you can follow along this youtube video => https://youtu.be/VIWKc5sx5Ao?si=10UiAbDKqM-O5wQd

Improve this answer

Comments

Your Answer

By clicking “Post Your Answer”, you agree to our terms of service and acknowledge you have read our privacy policy.

Start asking to get answers

Find the answer to your question by asking.

Ask question

Explore related questions

See similar questions with these tags.