How Change Text Attributes From Within a Script 1

[YerMom]

I would like my script to output text in various "formats" such as different colors, or bright white vs regular white.

Is this possible to do?

Thanks.

 

[PHV]

man tput

Hope This Helps, PH.
FAQ219-2884
FAQ181-2886

 

[Mike042]

Yes, it is. But it will be dependent on the capability of the 'screen'. There are various 'escape sequences' that can display the text as 'bold', 'underline', 'reverse video', 'blinking' and in a variety of colours, and even as 'double height &/or double width'. Try a google search for: terminal + escape + sequences

When writing a scipt, for 'printability', I use the following construct in it:
ESC=`echo "E" | tr E '\033'`
echo "$ESC[1m This is a bold statement. $ESC[0m"


I hope that helps.

Mike

 

[PHV]

Mike, why hard-coding escape sequences?
echo "$(tput bold)This is a bold statement.$(tput sgr0)"

Hope This Helps, PH.
FAQ219-2884
FAQ181-2886

 

[YerMom]

Thanks PHV and Mike.

When I try:

echo "$(tput bold)This is a bold statement.$(tput sgr0)"

there is no text formatting, and the output is litterally:

$(tput bold)This is a bold statement.$(tput sgr0)

When I try:

ESC=`echo "E" | tr E '\033'`
   echo "$ESC[1m This is a bold statement. $ESC[0m"

It works fine.

I'm working in the tcsh shell -- I don't know if that matters.

 

[SamBones]

In tcsh, try it this way...

echo "`tput bold`This is a bold statement.`tput sgr0`"

 

[YerMom]

Thanks Sam -- works fine.

 

[Mike042]

Hi PHV,

You asked: why hard-coding escape sequences?
Well, I was originally a VMS Systems Manager and learnt DCL. We had various VT terminals and I used the 'escape sequence' technique/construct for switching between VT modes (such as VT100, VT52, terminal graphics and Regis) as well as for enhancing the output to the screen (with bold, underline, reverse-video, blinking and coloured text, etc). When I switched to UNIX, I translated 'utility' scripts to run in Bourne or Korn shells. They worked, so it seemed natural to carry on using 'escape sequences'. They seem more powerful, require less typing, and have a greater variety of possibilites than 'tput'.

I hope that helps.

Mike

 

[p5wizard]

The point in using tput is: the escape-sequences will be generated at run time for all supported terminal makes/models: DEC VTxxx, IBM 31xx, HP, Wyse, Beehive, Televideo, ... Granted, some of these makes and models of terminals have all but disappeared, but still...
Also, terminal emulation software packages on PCs can emulate different makes/models of terminals, so it is best not to assume anything while scripting, and use tput (plus the TERM shell variable) to generate the proper escape sequences for the desired tput keywords...



HTH,

p5wizard