colored-terminal

Install

npm install -g thegregorator/colored-terminal

Usage

Configuration

The configuration file is an array of rule dictionaries, which each consist of a path matcher and a set of colors.

Rules are processed from first to last, so rules further down can override earlier rules.

Path matchers can be defined using:

• path - Matches a directory and its subdirectories.
• singlePath - Matches a single directory.
• pathRegex - Matches a directory with a regular expression. Can be of the format "expr" or "/expr/flags".

Colors can be defined using a dictionary with fg/bg entries for foreground/background colors.
Non-dictionary colors are treated as background colors (x is equivalent to {"bg": x}).

Color values can be specified using formats supported by CSS:

• "#438"
• "#483D8B"
• "rgb(72, 61, 139)"
• "rgba(72, 61, 139, 1)" (transparent fg colors will be blended with the bg)
• "darkslateblue"

See the example configuration file.

Command-line interface

$ colored-terminal --help

Directory->color mapping with support for iTerm's color escape codes
Usage: colored-terminal [OPTION]
  -c, --config    configuration file (default: ~/.config/colored-terminal.json)
  -p, --path      path to test against the configuration (default: CWD)
  -m, --mode      print mode (iterm-escaped, hex, rgb, source, none)
                  defaults to "none", or "iterm-escaped" when iTerm is detected
  -h, --help      display this help and exit

The -c option lets you specify a configuration file other than the one at the default path.

You can specify specific paths other than the current directory via tha -p option to test your configuration.

Also useful for debugging is the -m source option, which prints the matching color(s) as specified in the configuration, as well as which rule they came from.

Get started in your terminal

The best kind of color-changing terminal is one that does it automatically.

First, save the example configuration file to the default path (~/.config/colored-terminal.json).

Then, paste this bad boy into your .bash_profile or .zshrc or whatever, and you'll be good to go:

_colored_terminal() {
    # Run the command asynchronously so it doesn't delay the prompt,
    # and in a subshell so it won't ouput async job info.
    (colored-terminal &)
    # Or, for a custom config file path:
    # (colored-terminal -m path/to/config_file.json &)
}
# Set up colored-terminal to run before each prompt, so you'll always have
# the right color displayed.
if [[ -n "$ZSH_VERSION" ]]; then
    # zsh
    typeset -a precmd_functions
    precmd_functions+=_colored_terminal
else 
    # bash
    export PROMPT_COMMAND='_colored_terminal;'$PROMPT_COMMAND
fi