Bash change color output Changing output colors can make text easier to read and create a more personal command-line Mar 25, 2025 · For instance, we can change the text color of the Bash terminal to cyan by adding a line to the . dir_colors change the colors inside that file (it is quite self explanatory, and the colors are visualized inside the file) apply the changes: eval $(dircolors ~/. com May 5, 2017 · How can I change the color of an output of a command in bash? For instance, I want to colorize the output of hostname command. The only what partially working is this code: #!/bin/bash GRN='\ Oct 29, 2022 · In UNIX-like operating systems, the echo command is used to display a string of characters onto the terminal. I am using the default shell in FreeBSD 5. Colorizing Shell Use the following template for writing colored text: echo -e "e[COLORmSample Texte[0m" Option Description -e Enable interpretation of backslash escapes e[ Begin the color modifications COLORm Color Code […] Setting Up Colors in Your Bash Profile. . Conclusion. Jun 7, 2012 · You can set ls colors manually but I prefer this approach: First of all there is the. To change the colors, find the needed ANSI escape sequence and apply it. It is som monotonous and hard to find where the output starts. Related. g. Here are some ways to do it: grep --color 'pattern\|$' file grep --color -E 'pattern|$' file egrep --color 'pattern|$' file The | symbol is the OR operator. Colorizing Shell Use the following template for writing colored text: echo -e "e[COLORmSample Texte[0m" Option Description -e Enable interpretation of backslash escapes e[ Begin the color modifications COLORm Color Code […] Aug 29, 2024 · How to Change BASH Prompt Color. Here’s a basic example of how you can set colors in your Bash prompt: Oct 31, 2023 · Changing the Color of Echo Output in Bash. See grep(1) § GREP COLORS for more information. While adding color to your bash scripts can make them more visually appealing and easier to read, it's important to use color judiciously and follow some best practices. Modified 15 days ago. The code is based on this post. For example, I want to be able to print the text in green when the script is successful and in red when the script fails. Setting LS_COLORS Globally. on systems with terminfo (Linux based) you can obtain quantity of supported colors as. bashrc` or `. In addition, xterm-color is a terminal type that supports colorization. How do you automatically colorize program outputs in a bash shell? 17. 8. I use this c code for printing coloured shell output. Either escape it using \ or tell grep that the search text has to be interpreted as regular expressions by adding -E or using the egrep command instead of grep. From what I understand, the program itself is not responsible for the colors. It then applies the specified color to the text using tput. dir_colors) for persistent use put this in Jun 20, 2013 · I was wondering if it is possible to change the color of the output of a command in linux to a different color than that of the command line where I type in. Oct 22, 2023 · Best Practices for Using Color in Bash Scripts. Use ANSI escape sequences to set text properties like foreground and background colors. May 10, 2011 · How to change the output color of echo in Linux. 1m times 2826 . like, @USER/Destop$ ----> blue /* ----- output file in white ----- */ Thanks Mar 11, 2016 · and source it whenever you need colors. Just substitute this path in the previous examples. Viewed 2. dircolors command. Jan 11, 2021 · Hello, I am working on a Bash script and I wanted to change the color of some of the output to emphasize on some specific words. Aug 6, 2024 · You learned how change the color of shell prompt under Linux and Unix when using bash. When using the auto parameter, colored output will be enabled only when stdout is a terminal. Any user logging in will see your custom ls output! Oct 21, 2011 · Otherwise, you can force it by calling grep --color Is there a generic way to color the output of any program according to your personal choice. ip(8) command from iproute2 supports colors with -c/-color option. Usually, the color of output of the echo command follows the terminal theme, nothing unusual about that. This can make the command-line interface look better and help tell different types of information apart. Dec 27, 2023 · cp /etc/DIR_COLORS ~/. bash_profile`. bashrc file: $ cat . sudo apt-get install colordiff Pipe any diff-format output into colordiff: This includes some of diff's alternate formats, like -y (side-by-side. Here are some best practices for using color in bash scripts: 1. If you use a linux distro, almost all of which come with gnu ls, you probably already have coloured output. One of the most common and noticeable customizations is changing the color of your command prompt (PS1). Among them: Improved Readability: Colors rapidly direct attention to messages, making it easier to parse critical information. We can also Sep 13, 2024 · bash color Using shell function. ) Alternatively, if invoked standalone (without anything piped into it) then it acts as a wrapper around 'diff', and colors the output. /my-script would print colors, but . dircolors --print-database > ~/. Number_Of_colors_Supported=$(tput colors) Mar 27, 2025 · How to enable colorized output for ls command in MacOS X Terminal; How To Turn On/Off Colors For ls Command In Bash On a Linux/Unix; Turn off color in Linux terminal/bash session; Turn On or Off Color Syntax Highlighting In vi or vim Editor; BASH Shell: Change The Color of My Shell Prompt Under Linux or UNIX Apr 27, 2018 · How to change the output color of echo in Linux. /my-script | grep foo won't send color codes to grep. For example, above those lines you mention, there's a different way of enabling colors, xterm-color|*-256color) color_prompt=yes;; Which makes me think that the colors could automatically enable if you had correct value in TERM variable. And reload Bash to apply. trap but without success. Why would you want to do that? Dec 5, 2017 · Tour Start here for a quick overview of the site Help Center Detailed answers to any questions you might have Jul 14, 2018 · I hope I didn't sound disrespectful with my comments, I'm just trying to understand how it was meant to work. So:. $ hostname Nameofcomputer <--- Just the output to be colored and then it returns to default color of the shell. To change the colors system-wide for all users, edit /etc/DIR_COLORS instead. It is the shell. We can change the color of the bash prompt. Printing colored text to the Linux terminal is a straightforward yet powerful way to enhance the visual presentation of your command-line applications or scripts. dircolors. I tried some workflows with e. Simplified Debugging: Color-coded outputs can highlight errors or success statuses, allowing for quicker troubleshooting. 0;32m – This string represents the colors. Jun 22, 2024 · Linux Bash users often want to change the color of their terminal output. bashrc export TERM=xterm-color PS1="\[\e[36m\]\u@\h:\w\$ \[\e[0m\]" The export command sets the value of the TERM variable to xterm-color. For more information see the following resources: HowTo: Change or setup your bash custom prompt (PS1) – This tutorial explains how-to customizing a bash shell to get a good looking prompt, configure the appearance of the terminal and apply themes using Sep 6, 2019 · Permanency. 2. To change the color of the text, you can use the following syntax: echo -e "\e[COLOR_CODEmYour Text\e[0m" Apr 11, 2010 · Before you going to output any color you need make sure you are in a terminal: [ -t 1 ] && echo 'Yes I am in a terminal' # isatty(3) call in C Then you need to check terminal capability if it support color. Get color output in bash. The -n option includes file line numbers in the output. 17. Oct 17, 2023 · One common approach to alter the echo output color in Linux is by using ANSI escape sequences. This function takes two arguments: the color code and the text to be printed. Armed with our knowledge of ANSI escape sequences, we can now inject them into our echo statements to modify the output color and style! Here is the basic syntax: echo -e "\033[COLOR_CODEmColored text here!\033[0m" The -e flag tells echo to parse escape sequences. Up to now, we‘ve modified LS_COLORS on a per-user basis. I am trying to print a For viewing diff output in color, use colordiff. Jul 18, 2019 · I'am trying few days to change color output from command in bash script. These sequences are a set of characters that, when included in the echo command, modify the color and formatting of the output. Here is one example: export PS1="\e[0;32m[\u@\h \W]\$ \e[0m" Now let’s see how we can change the color of the bash prompt: \e[ – This string tells bash prompt to apply color from next character. Setting colors in your terminal session is only temporary and relatively unconditional. Sep 1, 2013 · In the specific case of ls:. Many users don't know how to change these colors in the Bash environment. tput will put zero-length strings on dumb terminals and whenever the stdout is not a terminal. 1 which looks like it has never seen colors since epoch. Dec 27, 2016 · You can make your BASH script more pretty, by colorizing its output. Sometimes the effect lasts for a few lines; that's because this method of setting colors relies on a printf statement to set a mode that lasts only until something else overrides it. See full list on linuxsimply. Why Use Color in Bash? Coloring text output in Bash provides numerous benefits. //General Formatting #define GEN_FORMAT_RESET "0" #define GEN_FORMAT_BRIGHT "1" #define GEN_FORMAT_DIM "2" #define GEN_FORMAT_UNDERSCORE "3" #define GEN_FORMAT_BLINK "4" #define GEN_FORMAT_REVERSE "5" #define GEN_FORMAT_HIDDEN "6" //Foreground Colors #define FOREGROUND_COL_BLACK "30" #define FOREGROUND_COL Nov 28, 2023 · echo -e "\033[32m Welcome to Bash Color Basics!\033[0m" # Output: # Welcome to Bash Color Basics! (in green color) In this code, \033[32m is an escape sequence that instructs Bash to change the color of the following text to green. ip. Ask Question Asked 13 years, 11 months ago. But if you want, you can change the color of the output text of the echo command in Linux. To customize your terminal colors, you’ll typically modify your `. If you don't, try ls -C or ls --color=auto. cxm jmxle qhxywgb ztvb obr ghndrt epatyv xwrchx zjiyg lpwfz lihozhi tgnupk gvslcmxh fccn bngbu