Terminal prompt on new Mac is not the same as on my existing Mac - macos

Question

MacOS Ventura 13.1
M2 Silicon
Trying to set up a new mac. On my existing Mac, I have a .zshrc, and in it, I have the following:
## begin Git branch prompt
git_branch_test_color() {
local ref=$(git symbolic-ref --short HEAD 2> /dev/null)
if [ -n "${ref}" ]; then
if [ -n "$(git status --porcelain)" ]; then
local gitstatuscolor='%F{red}'
else
local gitstatuscolor='%F{green}'
fi
echo "${gitstatuscolor} (${ref})"
else
echo ""
fi
}
setopt PROMPT_SUBST
PROMPT='%/ $(git_branch_test_color)%F{none} $ '
# add 24h time the right side
RPROMPT='%D{%m-%d-%Y %k:%M:%S}'
## end Git branch prompt
And I would get something like:
/Users/jmac/Development/repos/p1 (development) $ 02-16-2023 19:20:56
(development) is in red, because I have not checked in my changes and the full path is there for me to see.
On the new Mac, there is no .zshrc by default, so I added the code to the .zprofile file, and it's not working the same. I see the date/time on the right, but I don't see the full path and the prompt looks like this:
/Users/jmac p1 % 02-16-2023 19:20:56
Any ideas? prompt modification is not my forte.

Answer 1

The short answer: create a ~/.zshrc file and move that code into it.
The slightly longer answer: something is overriding the value in the PROMPT variable. There isn't anything in the default zsh installation that'll turn the $ in your prompt into a %.
That 'something' could be in a few different forms. There may be code that is modifying the PS1 variable, which is essentially a synonym for PROMPT. Or there may be something hidden in scripts or functions called from ~/.zprofile (for example, oh-my-zsh does this, albeit usually from ~/.zshrc).
Some options
Try to trace what's happening in the zprofile file. One way to do that is to run these commands:
setopt xtrace
. ~/.zprofile
The main challenge here is often the sheer volume of the output; it may be difficult to find the spot where the prompt is being set.
Move the PROMPT assignment to the bottom of ~/.zprofile. Then your assignment should override whatever is setting the value earlier in the process.
Move the PROMPT assignment into ~/.zshrc. This is a better place for the assignment anyway, since .zshrc is only loaded for interactive shells, and setting the prompt is only used in interactive shells.
The code in ~/.zshrc is loaded after the code in ~/.zprofile, so this has a similar effect to the prior option.
If none of these options have any effect, then you'll need to look for other startup files, e.g. ~/.zlogin. There's a nice overview of how the various dot files are handled in zsh in this answer.