show full directory path in Terminal of macOS Catalina (and ZSH)

[bill99]

Hello Forum

Unter Linux I was used that the full directory path was always shown in the shell/CLI.
Under the ZSH of macOS Catalina, by default, this is not the case

Even though there are may advices in the web how to make ZSH behave like that I am unable to do so....

Question:
What is the best approach to activate "show full directory path" under Catalina.
It would be great, if there is a possibility without keyboard-sortcuts and F-keys......


Thank you very much for any help!

Regards,

Bill

 

[chabig]

From https://scriptingosx.com/2019/07/moving-to-zsh-06-customizing-the-zsh-prompt/, try this:

% PROMPT='%/ %# '

Here's another helpful page:

An Introduction to the Z Shell - Prompting

 

[joevt]

The path appears in the title of the window. You can hold the Command key and click it to see all the folders in the path.

The window title might just show the working directory. Go in the Terminal.app menu, select Terminal -> Preferences -> Profiles -> Basic/Default -> Window, and enable the Path checkbox to show the entire path.

You can drag the icon of the window to insert the path as text into the terminal window.

You can type pwd to see the current path.

 

[bill99]

Hmm... does not work in my case. Do you mean -> Preferences -> Profiles -> Basic/Default -> Window ?
(x) working directory
(x) path

 

[joevt]

Hmm... does not work in my case. Do you mean -> Preferences -> Profiles -> Basic/Default -> Window ?
(x) working directory
(x) path

Yes, works in Catalina and Big Sur to change the appearance of Terminal.app Window titles. If you want to show the path in the CLI, then you need to modify the prompt like @chabig said.

 

[bill99]

Yes, works in Catalina and Big Sur to change the appearance of Terminal.app Window titles. If you want to show the path in the CLI, then you need to modify the prompt like @chabig said.

You're right. It works. Thank's a lot!

 

[bill99]

You can drag the icon of the window to insert the path as text into the terminal window.

Ok I tried this too and even I am the Admin and do have "Read and Write" access to the Folder in questions,
(and to all folders in the directory path) the following message is shown in Terminal:


Last login: Thu Mar 18 20:12:03 on console
imac-admin@imac-admins-iMac ~ % /Users/imac-admin/Desktop
zsh: permission denied: /Users/imac-admin/Desktop


What I am doing wrong?

Thanks a lot!

 

[chrfr]

Ok I tried this too and even I am the Admin and do have "Read and Write" access to the Folder in questions,
(and to all folders in the directory path) the following message is shown in Terminal:


Last login: Thu Mar 18 20:12:03 on console
imac-admin@imac-admins-iMac ~ % /Users/imac-admin/Desktop
zsh: permission denied: /Users/imac-admin/Desktop


What I am doing wrong?

Thanks a lot!

You need to grant Terminal permissions in the Security and Privacy preference pane. If you want Terminal to have full access to your disk, then give it Full Disk Access. If not, then grant Terminal access to the appropriate folders under the "Files and Folders" section.

 

[joevt]

Ok I tried this too and even I am the Admin and do have "Read and Write" access to the Folder in questions,
(and to all folders in the directory path) the following message is shown in Terminal:

Last login: Thu Mar 18 20:12:03 on console
imac-admin@imac-admins-iMac ~ % /Users/imac-admin/Desktop
zsh: permission denied: /Users/imac-admin/Desktop

What I am doing wrong?

Thanks a lot!

/Users/imac-admin/Desktop is not a command. It is a folder. You do not have permission to execute a folder, nor would you want to execute a folder.


The drag and drop thing I mentioned is a shortcut for entering the path of the folder into your command line.
For example, say you want to checksum a file. You type md5 with a space, then drag a file into the terminal window and it automatically enters the path of the file into the command line.
md5 myfile
Then you press return to execute it.

 

[bill99]

Thank's for the feedback! I don't know if I do missunderstand you.. But when I dropped a folder (shown/listed in Finder)
into Terminal this was the message shown in Terminal.

My idea was, by dropping a folder into the Terminal-windows, it's not required to type long folder-pathes
into Terminal.

Am I wrong?

 

[chrfr]

Thank's for the feedback! I don't know if I do missunderstand you.. But when I dropped a folder (shown/listed in Finder)
into Terminal this was the message shown in Terminal.

My idea was, by dropping a folder into the Terminal-windows, it's not required to type long folder-pathes
into Terminal.

Am I wrong?

dropping an object into Terminal does put the path into Terminal, but you have to have a command in there as well. if you're trying to change into that folder, then you'd type cd (space) and then drop the folder in the window.

 

[bill99]

It works Thanks a lot all of you for your help!

Bill

 

[NanaT]

I'm lost! Do I want everything to be in the path, terminal? Not sure what to do with this zsh prompt! Help