How to color a prompt on FreeBSD/cshrc?

This page has a pretty good explanation, although the syntax is a bit different in csh. Here's what I came up with:

set prompt="%{\e[32;1m%}%n%{\e[37m%}@%{\e[33m%}%m%{\e[37m%}:%{\e[36m%}%~%{\e[37m%}"\$"%{\e[0m%} "
# root variation:
set prompt="%{\e[31;1m%}root%{\e[37m%}@%{\e[33m%}%m%{\e[37m%}:%{\e[36m%}%/%{\e[37m%}#%{\e[0m%} "

update: the previous prompt I had here didn't actually update when you changed directories. using %n, %~ and %m instead of $cwd or pwd actually update. see here.

%{ ... %} means the stuff between should take 0-width
\e[ ... m specifies the colors and bolding. \e escapes the [ which seems to be necessary (I believe it's equivalent to \033), the m signifies the end.

Use 0 as your color to reset to default.

If you want to set a color and background, simply separate the numbers with semi-colons. Use 1 to enable bolding.

Consult this table to choose your colors:

_{(source: funtoo.org)}

So for example, "Hello World" in bold, cyan on a red background would be %{\e[36;41;1m%}Hello World%{\e[0m%}

# Add these lines to your ~/.cshrc.mine file on the linux grace machines...

# Colors!
set     red="%{\033[1;31m%}"
set   green="%{\033[0;32m%}"
set  yellow="%{\033[1;33m%}"
set    blue="%{\033[1;34m%}"
set magenta="%{\033[1;35m%}"
set    cyan="%{\033[1;36m%}"
set   white="%{\033[0;37m%}"
set     end="%{\033[0m%}" # This is needed at the end... :(

# Setting the actual prompt

set prompt="${green}%n${blue}@%m ${white}%~ ${green}%%${end} "

# Clean up
unset red green yellow blue magenta cyan yellow white end

To my knowledge FreeBSD comes with tcsh by default. Have a look at the examples.

Another list for other shells as well (bash, csh, tcsh, ksh, etc.) is available. Taken from that link and tested with tcsh (I do not have csh installed):

To color the prompt you will want to place this symbol in your prompt. %{\033[Xm%}.

Certain colors need a semicolon in order to appear. Yellow […] is 1;33 do not use just 33 or it will come out brown. If you have a 0;31 you don't need to place the 0.

The colours are ANSI. Have a look at the ANSI colours list; simply replace X with the colour code.

X = 0 resets the colours: %{\033[0m%}.