In this chapter, we covered text output formatting and colorizing terminal text. We then saw how text formatting can be used to modify the bash prompt string and also discussed novel tricks and tips that you can use to display some helpful information using your prompt string. We then moved onto aliases and discussed making some complex and tedious commands a lot simpler by using simple mnemonic aliases. Finally, we covered tab completion and learned how to modify it to suit our needs. We also discussed an example involving the John the Ripper password and hash cracking tool.

Hopefully, you've taken a few useful tips from this chapter and will be able to make much needed and productive modifications to your terminal so that you can wield it effectively during penetration tests. A good exercise would be to look at some of the tools installed on the Kali Linux command line and think about ways to make them easier and more efficient to use by whipping out one or two of the tricks covered...