This is my standard .bashrc that I use on all my boxes with a bash prompt. It gives you colourful listings when you use 'ls' and some shorthand versions of common 'ls' parameters.

The PS1 is set to just show the username, directory and the command in a brighter colour than the output from commands:

# ls aliases that use colour
alias la='ls -a --color=auto'
alias lla='ls -la --color=auto'
alias lt='ls -ltr --color=auto'
alias ll='ls -l --color=auto'
alias ls='ls --color=auto'
alias lsh='ls -lSh --color=auto'</p>

# Unix prompt: /user /directory $
PS1='[e[0;32m]u[e[m] [e[1;34m]w[e[m] [e[1;32m]$[e[m] [e[1;37m]'</p>

# start a web server in this directory
alias rshare="ruby -rubygems -e "['thin', 'rack', 'socket'].each {|file| require file };"
" Thin::Server.start(IPSocket.getaddress(Socket.gethostname), 7777) {"
" use Rack::CommonLogger; run Rack::Directory.new(Dir.pwd) }""

Example in /bin:
ps1