domain="www.google.com"
echo -e "\e[1;34m"$domain"\e[0m"
I expected this to output www.google.com in green letters.
Instead I got
-e \e[1;34mwww.google.com\e[0m
asked May 23, 2017 at 23:03
2 Answers
Depending the environment or shell used can have an effect, one thing you could probably do is to use ANSI-C quoting:
echo $'\e[1;34m'${domain}$'\e[0m'
Words of the form $'string' are treated specially. The word expands to string, with backslash-escaped characters replaced as specified by the ANSI C standard.
https://www.gnu.org/software/bash/manual/html_node/ANSI_002dC-Quoting.html
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1@user299709: One other alternative is to use the escape code
\033instead of\e(eg.echo -e '\033[1;34m'"${domain}"'\033[0m')... some shells don't use\eand in such a case you'll generally have to use an alternative means of escaping characters.– l'L'lCommented May 23, 2017 at 23:32
If you run a script with sh script.sh, you're explicitly using sh as the shell rather than the one in the shebang line. That's bad news if sh isn't a link to bash. A plain sh shell may not support echo -e.
Type ./script.sh to use the interpreter in the shebang line.
answered May 23, 2017 at 23:18
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while this is a valid answer, I chose ILI's answer as it directly allowed me to display colors without having to change the way I was running the script. Commented May 23, 2017 at 23:25
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@user299709 Don't run a script with
shif it usesbash-specific features.– chepnerCommented May 24, 2017 at 0:57 -
You should change the way you're running the script, though. Commented May 24, 2017 at 1:40
#!/bin/bashat the top../script.shorsh script.sh? Don't do the latter.