I've just written a post about how to do all this. I've covered all the basics but had to guess a couple of things, e.g. how Paul uses the symbols etc. If you want to read it, check out http://digitalformula.net/articles/pimp-my-prompt-like-paul-irish.
There's also an article on digitalformula.net that shows a couple of other prompt examples - see http://digitalformula.net/articles/a-couple-more-bash-prompt-examples.
EDITED:
The code part is as follows:
PATH=$PATH:~/Data/Scripts:~/Data/Utils/rar:~/_Applications:~/_Applications/lynx
# alias to quickly show if any Handbrake processes are running
alias hb='sudo ps -aef | grep HandBrakeCLI'
# alias for quick DNS cache flushing
alias fc='sudo dscacheutil -flushcache'
# enable the git bash completion commands
source ~/.git-completion
# enable git unstaged indicators - set to a non-empty value
GIT_PS1_SHOWDIRTYSTATE="."
# enable showing of untracked files - set to a non-empty value
GIT_PS1_SHOWUNTRACKEDFILES="."
# enable stash checking - set to a non-empty value
GIT_PS1_SHOWSTASHSTATE="."
# enable showing of HEAD vs its upstream
GIT_PS1_SHOWUPSTREAM="auto"
BLACK=$(tput setaf 0)
RED=$(tput setaf 1)
GREEN=$(tput setaf 2)
YELLOW=$(tput setaf 3)
LIME_YELLOW=$(tput setaf 190)
POWDER_BLUE=$(tput setaf 153)
BLUE=$(tput setaf 4)
MAGENTA=$(tput setaf 5)
CYAN=$(tput setaf 6)
WHITE=$(tput setaf 7)
BRIGHT=$(tput bold)
NORMAL=$(tput sgr0)
BLINK=$(tput blink)
REVERSE=$(tput smso)
UNDERLINE=$(tput smul)
# set the prompt to show current working directory and git branch name, if it exists
# this prompt is a green username, black @ symbol, cyan host, magenta current working directory and white git branch (only shows if you're in a git branch)
# unstaged and untracked symbols are shown, too (see above)
# this prompt uses the short colour codes defined above
# PS1='${GREEN}\u${BLACK}@${CYAN}\h:${MAGENTA}\w${WHITE}`__git_ps1 " (%s)"`\$ '
# this is a cyan username, @ symbol and host, magenta current working directory and white git branch
# it uses the shorter , but visibly more complex, codes for text colours (shorter because the colour code definitions aren't needed)
# PS1='\[\033[0;36m\]\u@\h\[\033[01m\]:\[\033[0;35m\]\w\[\033[00m\]\[\033[1;30m\]\[\033[0;37m\]`__git_ps1 " (%s)"`\[\033[00m\]\[\033[0;37m\]\$ '
# return the prompt prefix for the second line
function set_prefix {
BRANCH=`__git_ps1`
if [[ -z $BRANCH ]]; then
echo "${NORMAL}o"
else
echo "${UNDERLINE}+"
fi
}
# and here's one similar to Paul Irish's famous prompt ... not sure if this is the way he does it, but it works :)
# \033[s = save cursor position
# \033[u = restore cursor position
PS1='${MAGENTA}\u${WHITE} in ${GREEN}\w${WHITE}${MAGENTA}`__git_ps1 " on %s"`${WHITE}\r\n`set_prefix`${NORMAL}${CYAN}\033[s\033[60C (`date "+%a, %b %d"`)\033[u${WHITE} '