TxtStyle is a command line tool colorizing output of console programs. It makes it easier to visually scan log files. Or it can be simply used to make output prettier.

git clone git://github.com/armandino/TxtStyle.git
cd TxtStyle

Apply 'example' style to example.log

./txts -n example example.log

Color ifconfig output

ifconfig | ./txts -n ifconfig

Color calendar

cal 2012 | ./txts -n calendar

Color ps output

ps aux | txts -n ps

To install, execute the setup script in the TxtsStyle directory:

sudo python2 setup.py install

(Alternatively, simply put the txts script on the PATH)

TxtStyle reads styles from a conf file under user's home directory:

~/.txts.conf

There are some example styles defined out of the box. To define your own, add styles to the conf and reference them by name.

For example, add "mystyle":

[Style="mystyle"]
blue: index(0-6)
red: regex("foo")
green bold: regex("bar")
grey on-yellow: regex("baz")

TxtStyle works by styling lines of text using regular expressions and/or string indexes. So index(0-6) highlights a substring of a line and regex("pattern") highlights text matching the pattern.

Save the conf file with "mystyle" and run txts with the -n (or --name) option:

echo "Styling foo, bar, and baz." | txts -n mystyle

TxtStyle configuration supports a small set of named color keys (such as red, blue, yellow) and an extended set of numeric keys (from 1 to 255). To print available keys use the -p option:

txts -p

Highlight text using the -r (or --regex) option. For example

echo "A Foo and a Bar" | txts -r "Foo|Bar"

TxtStyle does not apply styles if output is piped to another command. To force color if the output is piped, use --color-always option:

ps aux | txts -n ps --color-always | less -R

Print basic help

txts -h