


Term::ANSIColor(3Perl Programmers Reference GuTerm::ANSIColor(3p)


NAME
       Term::ANSIColor - Color screen output using ANSI escape
       sequences

SYNOPSIS
           use Term::ANSIColor;
           print color 'bold blue';
           print "This text is bold blue.\n";
           print color 'reset';
           print "This text is normal.\n";
           print colored ("Yellow on magenta.\n", 'yellow on_magenta');
           print "This text is normal.\n";

           use Term::ANSIColor qw(:constants);
           print BOLD, BLUE, "This text is in bold blue.\n", RESET;

           use Term::ANSIColor qw(:constants);
           $Term::ANSIColor::AUTORESET = 1;
           print BOLD BLUE "This text is in bold blue.\n";
           print "This text is normal.\n";


DESCRIPTION
       This module has two interfaces, one through color() and
       colored() and the other through constants.

       color() takes any number of strings as arguments and con-
       siders them to be space-separated lists of attributes.  It
       then forms and returns the escape sequence to set those
       attributes.  It doesn't print it out, just returns it, so
       you'll have to print it yourself if you want to (this is
       so that you can save it as a string, pass it to something
       else, send it to a file handle, or do anything else with
       it that you might care to).

       The recognized attributes (all of which should be fairly
       intuitive) are clear, reset, bold, underline, underscore,
       blink, reverse, concealed, black, red, green, yellow,
       blue, magenta, on_black, on_red, on_green, on_yellow,
       on_blue, on_magenta, on_cyan, and on_white.  Case is not
       significant.  Underline and underscore are equivalent, as
       are clear and reset, so use whichever is the most intu-
       itive to you.  The color alone sets the foreground color,
       and on_color sets the background color.

       Note that attributes, once set, last until they are unset
       (by sending the attribute "reset").  Be careful to do
       this, or otherwise your attribute will last after your
       script is done running, and people get very annoyed at
       having their prompt and typing changed to weird colors.

       As an aid to help with this, colored() takes a scalar as
       the first argument and any number of attribute strings as
       the second argument and returns the scalar wrapped in



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Term::ANSIColor(3Perl Programmers Reference GuTerm::ANSIColor(3p)


       escape codes so that the attributes will be set as
       requested before the string and reset to normal after the
       string.  Normally, colored() just puts attribute codes at
       the beginning and end of the string, but if you set
       $Term::ANSIColor::EACHLINE to some string, that string
       will be considered the line delimiter and the attribute
       will be set at the beginning of each line of the passed
       string and reset at the end of each line.  This is often
       desirable if the output is being sent to a program like a
       pager that can be confused by attributes that span lines.
       Normally you'll want to set $Term::ANSIColor::EACHLINE to
       `"\n"' to use this feature.

       Alternately, if you import `:constants', you can use the
       constants CLEAR, RESET, BOLD, UNDERLINE, UNDERSCORE,
       BLINK, REVERSE, CONCEALED, BLACK, RED, GREEN, YELLOW,
       BLUE, MAGENTA, ON_BLACK, ON_RED, ON_GREEN, ON_YELLOW,
       ON_BLUE, ON_MAGENTA, ON_CYAN, and ON_WHITE directly.
       These are the same as color('attribute') and can be used
       if you prefer typing:

           print BOLD BLUE ON_WHITE "Text\n", RESET;

       to

           print colored ("Text\n", 'bold blue on_white');

       When using the constants, if you don't want to have to
       remember to add the `, RESET' at the end of each print
       line, you can set $Term::ANSIColor::AUTORESET to a true
       value.  Then, the display mode will automatically be reset
       if there is no comma after the constant.  In other words,
       with that variable set:

           print BOLD BLUE "Text\n";

       will reset the display mode afterwards, whereas:

           print BOLD, BLUE, "Text\n";

       will not.

       The subroutine interface has the advantage over the con-
       stants interface in that only 2 soubrutines are exported
       into your namespace, verses 22 in the constants interface.
       On the flip side, the constants interface has the advan-
       tage of better compile time error checking, since mis-
       spelled names of colors or attributes in calls to color()
       and colored() won't be caught until runtime whereas mis-
       spelled names of constants will be caught at compile time.
       So, polute your namespace with almost two dozen subrutines
       that you may not even use that oftin, or risk a silly bug
       by mistyping an attribute.  Your choice, TMTOWTDI after
       all.



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Term::ANSIColor(3Perl Programmers Reference GuTerm::ANSIColor(3p)


DIAGNOSTICS
       Invalid attribute name %s
           You passed an invalid attribute name to either color()
           or colored().

       Identifier %s used only once: possible typo
           You probably mistyped a constant color name such as:

               print FOOBAR "This text is color FOOBAR\n";

           It's probably better to always use commas after con-
           stant names in order to force the next error.

       No comma allowed after filehandle
           You probably mistyped a constant color name such as:

               print FOOBAR, "This text is color FOOBAR\n";

           Generating this fatal compile error is one of the main
           advantages of using the constants interface, since
           you'll immediately know if you mistype a color name.

       Bareword %s not allowed while ""strict subs"" in use
           You probably mistyped a constant color name such as:

               $Foobar = FOOBAR . "This line should be blue\n";

           or:

               @Foobar = FOOBAR, "This line should be blue\n";

           This will only show up under use strict (another good
           reason to run under use strict).

RESTRICTIONS
       It would be nice if one could leave off the commas around
       the constants entirely and just say:

           print BOLD BLUE ON_WHITE "Text\n" RESET;

       but the syntax of Perl doesn't allow this.  You need a
       comma after the string.  (Of course, you may consider it a
       bug that commas between all the constants aren't required,
       in which case you may feel free to insert commas unless
       you're using $Term::ANSIColor::AUTORESET.)

       For easier debuging, you may prefer to always use the com-
       mas when not setting $Term::ANSIColor::AUTORESET so that
       you'll get a fatal compile error rather than a warning.

AUTHORS
       Original idea (using constants) by Zenin (zenin@best.com),
       reimplemented using subs by Russ Allbery (rra@stan-
       ford.edu), and then combined with the original idea by



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       Russ with input from Zenin.
























































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