Bash/Colors
Bash Colors
You can make your BASH script more pretty, by colorizing its output.
Use ANSI escape sequences to set text properties like foreground and background colors.
Colorizing Shell
Use the following template for writing colored text:
echo -e "\e[COLORmSample Text\e[0m"
| Option | Description |
| -e | Enable interpretation of backslash escapes |
| \e[ | Begin the color modifications |
| COLORm | Color Code + ‘m’ at the end |
| \e[0m | End the color modifications |
Examples:
$ echo -e "\e[31mRed Text\e[0m"
$ echo -e "\e[42mGreen Background\e[0m" Green Background
ANSI — Color Escape Codes
Shell scripts commonly use ANSI escape codes for color output:
| Color | Foreground Code | Background Code | Sample |
| Black | 30 | 40 | |
| Red | 31 | 41 | |
| Green | 32 | 42 | |
| Brown | 33 | 43 | |
| Blue | 34 | 44 | |
| Purple | 35 | 45 | |
| Cyan | 36 | 46 | |
| Light Gray | 37 | 47 |
Escape sequence also allows to control the manner in which characters are displayed on the screen:
| ANSI Code | Description |
| 0 | Normal Characters |
| 1 | Bold Characters |
| 4 | Underlined Characters |
| 5 | Blinking Characters |
| 7 | Reverse video Characters |
Examples:
$ echo -e "\e[1mBold Text\e[0m" Bold Text $ echo -e "\e[3mUnderlined Text\e[0m" Underlined Text
By combining all these escape sequences, we can get more fancy effect.
echo -e "\e[COLOR1;COLOR2mSample Text\e[0m"
There are some differences between colors when combining colors with bold text attribute:
| Color | Foreground Code | Background Code | Sample |
| Dark Gray | 1;30 | 1;40 | |
| Light Red | 1;31 | 1;41 | |
| Light Green | 1;32 | 1;42 | |
| Yellow | 1;33 | 1;43 | |
| Light Blue | 1;34 | 1;44 | |
| Light Purple | 1;35 | 1;45 | |
| Light Cyan | 1;36 | 1;46 | |
| White | 1;37 | 1;47 |
Examples:
$ echo -e "\e[1;34mLight Blue Text\e[0m"
$ echo -e "\e[1;33;4;44mYellow Underlined Text on Blue Background\e[0m"