From mboxrd@z Thu Jan  1 00:00:00 1970
Return-Path: <zsh-workers-request@math.gatech.edu>
Received: (qmail 26738 invoked from network); 12 Sep 1997 17:57:43 -0000
Received: from math.gatech.edu (list@130.207.146.50)
  by coral.primenet.com.au with SMTP; 12 Sep 1997 17:57:43 -0000
Received: (from list@localhost)
	by math.gatech.edu (8.8.5/8.8.5) id NAA29039;
	Fri, 12 Sep 1997 13:50:57 -0400 (EDT)
Resent-Date: Fri, 12 Sep 1997 13:50:26 -0400 (EDT)
From: Andrew Main <zefram@tao.co.uk>
Message-Id: <199709121750.SAA07577@taos.demon.co.uk>
Subject: Re: can i have jobs in my prompt?
To: fk5a005@rrz.uni-hamburg.de (Matthias Kopfermann)
Date: Fri, 12 Sep 1997 18:50:30 +0100 (BST)
Cc: zsh-users@math.gatech.edu
In-Reply-To: <199709121736.TAA23418@rzaix43.rrz.uni-hamburg.de> from "Matthias Kopfermann" at Sep 12, 97 07:36:15 pm
X-Loop: zefram@tao.co.uk
X-Headers: in preparation
X-Mailer: ELM [version 2.4 PL25]
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=US-ASCII
Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit
Resent-Message-ID: <"JaGhA.0.s47.X3O6q"@math>
Resent-From: zsh-users@math.gatech.edu
X-Mailing-List: <zsh-users@math.gatech.edu> archive/latest/1014
X-Loop: zsh-users@math.gatech.edu
X-Loop: zsh-workers@math.gatech.edu
Precedence: list
Resent-Sender: zsh-workers-request@math.gatech.edu

Note: I'm CCing this reply to zsh-users, as the answer is likely to be
of general interest.


Matthias Kopfermann wrote:
>i forget how many jobs are running, especially if they are in the background.
>what would you do here?
>
>-f4-7)-%{`builtin jobs`%}-

Don't use %{%}.  They are used to indicate a sequence that doesn't move
the cursor, such as a colour escape sequence.  Also, $() is recommended
over ``, but in any case jobs doesn't work in a subshell.  A possible
approach would be to put something in precmd (a function run before each
prompt) like this:

function precmd {
  if jobs % >& /dev/null; then
    psvar=("*")
  else
    psvar=("")
  fi
}

And then put "%1v" in your prompt, for example:

PROMPT="%1v> "

and this will put a * in your prompt if there are any background jobs.
You can substitute any other sequence.

I think I might start using this myself.

-zefram