UX improvement for CLI prompt on MS Learn

[videlalvaro]

To Reproduce

Open a Learn module on MS Learn, like unit 5 here https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/learn/modules/implement-message-workflows-with-service-bus/5-exercise-write-code-that-uses-service-bus-queues and then launch the cloud shell in the browser, in the same tab.

Observed Behavior

The problem is that the prompt is too long and takes the whole screen width, since it's displaying the whole PWD instead of just the current folder.

Expected behavior

Have a shorter CLI prompt.

We could modify the PS1 variable in .bashrc when we see the modifier \w that displays the full path, we could have \W instead (uppercase W. see screenshot for the difference).

Context

Cloud Shell on Learn seems to use a .bashrc file similar to this one https://github.com/ams0/azure-cloudshell/blob/master/bashrc#L121 since there's that Azure modifier to PS1, but I couldn't find where that sits on this repo.

A quick solution could be during container boot, to have the docker file cat a PS1=${PS1//\\w/\\W} into $HOME/.bashrc

Tagging @johnpapa to the discussion, since he's on board for the change for Learn.

[Cheneric95]

@videlalvaro Thanks for the advice. We have looked at the issue.

• The principle of the bashrc creation is, when the user open cloud shell is ms learn and home directory is created, files are copied from /etc/skel and .bashrc are created then.

• So the next better step is user could edit their bashrc file by themselves to change the default prompt.

[videlalvaro]

@Cheneric95 the idea we had with @johnpapa was that this is done automatically for users as they open Cloud Shell on MS Learn.

We know it's possible to edit that file, as I did during my Cloud Shell session, but the goal is to improve the user experience as they learn through Microsoft tutorials

[johnpapa]

Thanks for considering this GH issue.

I agree with @videlalvaro that the user's experience could be improved by reducing the appearance of the shell prompt from

to

Why?

1. None of this information is important to the user.
2. The information is a distraction.
3. We want the user to focus on what they are doing, not on long prompts and customizing a shell that is not on their computer
4. The less that is on the screen, the more the user will focus on what we want them to focus on (the content)

You have a great point that the user can change it themselves. But is this the focus we want them to have? I think the more friction and distractions we can remove from the user, the more we can raise their awareness to the content we want them to focus on

[mbifeld]

Hey yall, I see this issue hasn't been updated in a while. The original module URL (https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/learn/modules/implement-message-workflows-with-service-bus/5-exercise-write-code-that-uses-service-bus-queues) doesn't work for me anymore, and I can't find any modules that have this behavior to validate if the issue is still there. Does anyone know if this issue is still present?