The last time I wrote about my Linux prompt, we were on post IV. Now it’s V, and all because I’m tired of not knowing if I’m in the debugger or not. The standard PowerShell prompt, when in the debugger, will add [DBG]: to the beginning of the prompt and an extra right angle bracket to the end. Therefore, the standard PowerShell ends up looking like it does toward the bottom of this first example.

PS C:\Users\tommymaynard> Set-PSBreakpoint -Script .\Desktop\NewScript.ps1 -Line 7
ID Script                Line Command               Variable             Action
-- ------                ---- -------               --------             ------
0 NewScript.ps1            7

PS C:\Users\tommymaynard> .\Desktop\NewScript.ps1
[DBG]: PS C:\Users\tommymaynard>> q
PS C:\Users\tommymaynard>

I’ll include my entire prompt at the end of today’s post, but before we do that, let’s focus on the new part. It’s going to add these same two things to the prompt, when I’m debugging a script. If the path, Variable:/PSDebugContext exists, we can safety assume we’re in the debugger. Therefore, when we are, we’ll assign two new variables as $DebugStart and $DebugEnd.

If (Test-Path -Path Variable:/PSDebugContext) {
    $DebugStart = '[DBG]: '
    $DebugEnd = ']'
}

Again, the above If statement is stuffed between a bunch of other PowerShell that makes up the entire prompt. Before we get there, here’s an example of what my prompt looks like now when we are, and aren’t in the debugger.

[tommymaynard@server01 c/~]$ .\Desktop\NewScript.ps1
[DBG]: [tommymaynard@server01 c/~]]$ q
[tommymaynard@server01 c/~]$ 

Excellent! Now I can continue to use my own prompt function, and know when I’m in the debugger. All this, without hitting an error to remind me. In the full prompt below, we also update the WindowTitle to reflect when we’re in the debugger, too.

# Create Linux prompt.
Function Prompt {
    (Get-PSProvider -PSProvider FileSystem).Home = $env:USERPROFILE

    # Determine if Admin and set Symbol variable.
    If ([bool](([System.Security.Principal.WindowsIdentity]::GetCurrent()).Groups -match 'S-1-5-32-544')) {
        $Symbol = '#'
    } Else {
        $Symbol = '$'
    }
	 
    # Write Path to Location Variable as /.../...
    If ($PWD.Path -eq $env:USERPROFILE) {
        $Location = '/~'
    } ElseIf ($PWD.Path -like "*$env:USERPROFILE*") {
        $Location = "/$($PWD.Path -replace ($env:USERPROFILE -replace '\\','\\'),'~' -replace '\\','/')"
    } Else {
        $Location = "$(($PWD.Path -replace '\\','/' -split ':')[-1])"
    }

    # Determine Host for WindowTitle.
    Switch ($Host.Name) {
        'ConsoleHost' {$HostName = 'consolehost'; break}
        'Windows PowerShell ISE Host' {$HostName = 'ise'; break}
        default {}
    }

    # Create and write Prompt; Write WindowTitle.
    $UserComputer = "$($env:USERNAME.ToLower())@$($env:COMPUTERNAME.ToLower())" 
    $Location = "$((Get-Location).Drive.Name.ToLower())$Location"

    # Check if in the debugger.
    If (Test-Path -Path Variable:/PSDebugContext) {
        $DebugStart = '[DBG]: '
        $DebugEnd = ']'
    }

    # Actual prompt and title.
    $Host.UI.RawUI.WindowTitle = "$HostName`: $DebugStart[$UserComputer $Location]$DebugEnd$Symbol"
    "$DebugStart[$UserComputer $Location]$DebugEnd$Symbol "
}