Color output (ANSI escape codes) in Bash Scripting - Mini Project: Build & Apply

Color output (ANSI escape codes)

📖 Scenario: You want to make your terminal messages more colorful to catch attention or show status clearly. Using ANSI escape codes, you can add colors to your text output in the terminal.

🎯 Goal: Create a bash script that prints a message in red color using ANSI escape codes.

📋 What You'll Learn

Create a variable holding the ANSI escape code for red color

Create a variable holding the ANSI escape code to reset color

Use these variables to print the message 'Error: File not found!' in red color

Print the message so that the terminal color resets after the message

💡 Why This Matters

🌍 Real World

Colored terminal output helps highlight errors, warnings, or success messages making scripts easier to read and debug.

💼 Career

Many automation and scripting jobs require clear terminal output. Knowing how to add color improves script usability and professionalism.

1

Create the red color variable

Create a variable called RED and set it to the ANSI escape code for red color: \033[31m

Bash Scripting

# Create a variable called RED with the value '\033[31m'
# Your code here

Need a hint?

The ANSI escape code for red color is '\033[31m'. Assign it as a string to the variable RED.

2

Create the reset color variable

Create a variable called RESET and set it to the ANSI escape code to reset color: \033[0m

Bash Scripting

RED='\033[31m'
# Create a variable called RESET with the value '\033[0m'
# Your code here

Need a hint?

The ANSI escape code to reset color is '\033[0m'. Assign it as a string to the variable RESET.

3

Print the colored error message

Use echo -e to print the message 'Error: File not found!' in red color by combining the variables RED and RESET around the message.

Bash Scripting

RED='\033[31m'
RESET='\033[0m'
# Use echo -e to print the message in red color
# Your code here

Need a hint?

Use echo -e to enable interpretation of backslash escapes. Combine ${RED}, the message, and ${RESET} in one string.

4

Display the final colored message

Run the script so that it prints the message Error: File not found! in red color and then resets the terminal color.

Bash Scripting

RED='\033[31m'
RESET='\033[0m'
echo -e "${RED}Error: File not found!${RESET}"
# Run the script to display the colored message

Need a hint?

Run the script in a terminal that supports ANSI colors to see the red colored message.