Aligning modules to the right side of the shell.

[Malternative3772]

Hello,
I just wanted to ask if there is a way to align modules to the right side of the shell, so that it looks something like this:

`user@device in ~/                                                                                 9:35:29
 > `

This would allow me to have things like the battery usage and the date aligned on the right of the terminal window, and to have important information the username, hostname and directory on the left side.

[chipbuster]

This is a popular feature request (tracking issue for it is #498) but we haven't had anyone who's been willing to implement it so far.

[mickimnet]

@Malternative3772 what shell are you using? There is an easy way to do it in Fish Shell, with a second starship.toml File for the right side.

[Malternative3772]

Yes, I am using the Fish shell. Thank you very much. But how do I set up Starship to display the second prompt on the right side. Do I just add a second starship init fish | source into the fish.conf file?

[mickimnet]

As I believe the questions will be asked by quite some people, and I wanted to get the right prompt to work in Zsh anyway, here is the guide to set up a right prompt in both shells.

Workaround for Right Prompt (Zsh & Fish Shell)

• First, let me start with a big disclaimer: anything you're doing here may break with any update of Starship, as we may change the init process of Starship. Therefore you need to check it on each update of Starship.

• Second, as prerequisite, you should feel comfortable fiddling around with your shell configuration as well as know at least a bit about scripting in your shell (Fish Shell or Zsh).

General notes

You need to run starship init $YourShell --print-full-init and catch that output. If an update of Starship comes out, you need to compare the output of the new version to your saved output and update it accordingly.

Also, you need to create two starship.toml files, one for the left and one for the right configuration (see our documentation for how to do that). I prefer to name them starship-left.toml and starship-right.toml, and will use those names in this guide.

Fish shell

Run starship init fish --print-full-init and catch that output. You basically have two sections in the output. The first is starting with:

function fish_prompt
  ...
end

The second section starts after the end and needs to go in your config.fish (and replace the occurrence of starship init fish | source ).

The first sections needs to go in your fish_prompt function (you can run funced fish_prompt to edit it) and you need to add the following line above the "/Your/Local/bin/Path/to/starship" prompt ... line.

  ...
  set --export STARSHIP_CONFIG /Your/Path/To/Your/starship-left.toml    ## change /Your/Path/To/Your/starship-left.toml
  "/Your/Local/bin/Path/to/starship" prompt --status=$exit_code --keymap=$keymap --cmd-duration=$starship_duration --jobs=(count (jobs -p))    ## Don't copy this line! It's just for reference ;)
  ...

And finally, you need to edit the fish_right_prompt function (you can also use funced fish_right_prompt to edit it).

function fish_right_prompt --description 'Write out the prompt on the right side (starship style)'
  set --export STARSHIP_CONFIG Your/Path/To/Your/starship-right.toml    ## change Your/Path/To/Your/starship-right.toml
  "/Your/Local/bin/Path/to/starship" prompt
end

If you want to have the status, the duration or the jobs module to be displayed on the right side, you need to change the "/Your/Local/bin/Path/to/starship" prompt-line accordingly.

Zsh

Run starship init zsh --print-full-init >/Your/Path/.zsh_prompt. That stores the init code into a new file, which we're going to edit.

When you open that file in your editor, you need to replace the following line starting with PROMPT=... and add the RPROMPT=... line below it:

...
starship_render() {
  ...
  ## change /Your/Path/To/Your/starship-left.toml
  PROMPT="$(STARSHIP_CONFIG=/Your/Path/To/Your/starship-left.toml "/Your/Local/bin/Path/to/starship" prompt --keymap="${KEYMAP-}" --status=$STARSHIP_CMD_STATUS --cmd-duration=${STARSHIP_DURATION-} --jobs="$NUM_JOBS")"
  ## change /Your/Path/To/Your/starship-right.toml
  RPROMPT="$(STARSHIP_CONFIG=/Your/Path/To/Your/starship-right.toml "/Your/Local/bin/Path/to/starship" prompt)"
  ...
}
...

If you want to have the status, the duration or the jobs module to be displayed on the right side, you need to change the "/Your/Local/bin/Path/to/starship" prompt-line accordingly.

Finally you need to change the line eval "$(starship init zsh)" in your Zsh configuration file (e. g. ~/.zshrc) to source /Your/Path/.zsh_prompt.

Take care
Mick