title: Bash prompt scripting
body: <p>I'm trying to follow a guide found <a href="https://www.digitalocean.com/community/tutorials/how-to-customize-your-bash-prompt-on-a-linux-vps" rel="nofollow">here</a>, but I do not like what I see as a cop out. In the script they set <code>PS1</code> to </p>
  
  <pre><code>PS1="&lt;code&gt; `cat /proc/loadavg | awk '{print $1}'` &lt;more code&gt;"
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>My problem with this is I would like to know if it is possible to write it with single quotes like: </p>
  
  <pre><code>PS1='&lt;code&gt; `cat /proc/loadavg | awk \'{print $1}\'` &lt;more code&gt;'
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>So it is evaluated every time I run the command, not just the once. It seems the presence of the single quotes in awk are forcing me to use double quotes. I would like to have  this run after every prompt and I have another awk tidbit of code I would like to run here as well.</p>
  
  <p>If this would be too cumbersome for bash to do, then I'm fine not having it, it's more for proof of concept anyways.</p>