A command prompt (or just prompt) is a character or a sequence of characters used in a command line interface to indicate that the computer is ready to accept typed input. Command prompts usually end with characters such as $, #, : or > and often include other information, such as the path of the current working directory.

It is common to allow prompts to be modifiable by the user. In the proper environment, they may include colors, special characters, and other things like the current time, in order, for instance, to make the prompt more informative or visually pleasing, or to easily distinguish sessions on various machines.

It is also useful to check how your connection is sending and recieveing packets. To do this simply click start then click Run to the right and type "command" in the blank space.(dont include the quotations in the type) The command Prompt interface will open and then type "ipconfig". Next type "Ping 127.0.0.1" This ip adress is actually your computer resembled as an ip. So you should see how fast your connection is for your network you are currently in. If it says Packets Sent:4 Packets recieved:4 then your connection is working perfect.

In MS-DOS and in the Windows command line interpreter the prompt is modifiable by issuing a prompt command or by changing the value of the %PROMPT% environment variable. The default C:\> style is obtained, for instance, with "prompt $P$G".

On Unix systems, the $PS1 variable can be used, although other variables also may have an impact on what appears on the screen (depending on what shell is being used). In the bash shell, a prompt of the form

* user@host: work_dir $

export PS1='* \u@\H: $(pwd) $'

To set the command prompt to current working directory

export PS1='`pwd`>'

The Darwin bash prompt looks like this:

host:work_dir user$

User interface

Eingabeaufforderung | Invite de commande | Prompt | コマンドプロンプト | Prompt