Modify Bash prompt prefix in OS X terminal

I have a massive prompt taking my Terminal's space "names-MacBook-Pro" on the same line where the command is entered on every line.

Is there a way I can remove this or make it shorter?

Your prompt is set by the environment variable PS1. This is set by the system in /private/etc/bashrc, but it is usually modified by the user in your dotfiles within your home directory.

Check what it is currently set as using this command:

echo $PS1

Modify it by setting the variable in your ~/.bash_profile (or wherever you have defined it previously):

export PS1="$"

Reload the settings from your dotfiles by doing:

source ~/.bash_profile

This will make your new shell prompt simply a $

---

Prompt variables

• PS1 : Primary prompt string. The default value is \s-\v\$ .
• PS2 : Secondary prompt string. The default is >
• PS3 : Prompt for the select command
• PS4 : Printed before each command Bash displays during an execution trace. The first character of PS4 is replicated multiple times, as necessary, to indicate multiple levels of indirection. The default is +

Syntax (from the Bash manual)

\a : An ASCII bell character (07)
\d : The date in “Weekday Month Date” format (e.g., “Tue May 26”)
\D{format} : the format is passed to strftime(3) and the result is inserted into the prompt string; an empty format results in a locale-specific time representation. The braces are required
\e : An ASCII escape character (033)
\h : The hostname up to the first ‘.’
\H : The hostname
\j : The number of jobs currently managed by the shell
\l : The basename of the shell's terminal device name
\n : Newline
\r : Carriage return
\s : The name of the shell, the basename of $0 (the portion following the final slash)
\t : The current time in 24-hour HH:MM:SS format
\T : The current time in 12-hour HH:MM:SS format
\@ : The current time in 12-hour am/pm format
\A : The current time in 24-hour HH:MM format
\u : The username of the current user
\v : The version of Bash (e.g., 2.00)
\V : The release of Bash, version + patch level (e.g., 2.00.0)
\w : The current working directory, with $HOME abbreviated with a tilde
\W : The basename of the current working directory, with $HOME abbreviated with a tilde
\! : The history number of this command
\# : The command number of this command
\$ : If the effective UID is 0, a #, otherwise a $
\nnn : the character corresponding to the octal number nnn
\\ : A backslash
\[ : Begin a sequence of non-printing characters, which could be used to embed a terminal control sequence into the prompt
\] : end a sequence of non-printing characters