Making your Terminal look pretty on a Mac

I got a 15-inch MacBook Pro (8GB RAM/256GB SSD) last week. Yippie!

My first requirement was to have my terminal look as snappy as my previous Linux one did. So, after a little googling, and checking out my Linux settings, I finally made my Terminal (iTerm) look pretty. Here are the steps:

1. Open Terminal.
2. Type the command "vim ~/.bash_profile". This will open the hidden file ".bash_profile" from your home directory. I am using vim to edit the file, but you could instead open the file in any editor of your choice. If this file does not exist, create it. We will be putting our configuration settings in this file, which will be read by iTerm Terminal whenever a new window is opened.
3. Paste the following lines into this file: 

# enables color in the terminal bash shell 
export CLICOLOR=1 
# sets up the color scheme for list
export LSCOLORS=gxfxcxdxbxegedabagacad 
# enables color for iTerm 
export TERM=xterm-color 
# Color Prompt 
export PS1="\[\e[36;1m\]\u@\[\e[32;1m\]\w> \[\e[0m\]" 

# sets up proper alias commands when called
alias ls='ls -G'
alias ll='ls -hl'


4. Save you file and exit. 
5. Close/Exit your Terminal, and open a new Terminal Window. 
6. You should be seeing something as pretty as the screenshot below.

Note:

1. If you would like to make more changes to how your prompt shows up. Read this link:
   http://www.funtoo.org/wiki/Prompt_Magic
   
2. If you would like to change the LSCOLORS attribute, so that directories show up in some different color, then read this blog link:
   http://blog.imzaid.com/color-terminal-bash-on-the-mac-iterm-included