256 colour prompt in Zsh

colorszsh

How can I set my prompt to be colourized in 256 colours? I am looking for an equivalent to the bash prompt:

  local DEFAULT="\[\033[0;39m\]"
  local ROOK="\[\033[38;5;24m\]"
  PS1="${ROOK}\$${DEFAULT} "

Best Answer

First, ensure that your terminal supports 256 colors, which I suppose you already have. Second, use a PS1 variable with the correct code, for example:

export PS1='%{^[[01;38;05;214;48;05;123m%}%m%{^[[0m%} '

This will give you a prompt with the host name in bold, with a foreground color of 214 and a background color of 123.

Note that the ^[ is "entered" by typing Ctrl+v and Ctrl+[. See this excellent article "That 256 Color Thing" for the whole list of attributes.

Related Solutions

Bash – Colorize Bash Console Color

Here /sys/module/vt/parameters are three files:

default_blu
default_grn
default_red

Yellow is green and red. If you want to "boost" the normal color yellow (which you may have as brown), change the color with index three (the fourth slot) - set it to 255 in the green and red files.

Then, echo -n '\033]R'; tput setaf 3; echo hi and you should get yellow.

For me, it seems this is already the color for bright yellow, in which case you'd use: tput bold; tput setaf 3; echo hi.

If you need to setup the prompt differently in the console and in X, in your .rc file, before you set PS1, find out if you are in the console or in X. Set the color accordingly.

How to print text using any one of the 256 colors that the terminal allows

You can have a look into TERM settings. It is possible it is set to lesser then capable string. To test colors you can run GNU's msgcat. Try e.g.:

echo $TERM
msgcat --color=test
TERM=xterm-256color
msgcat --color=test

Or use @Ignacio Vazquez-Abrams's loop instead of msgcat.

For more information on how and what to set have a look at e.g.:

Best Answer

Related Solutions

Bash – Colorize Bash Console Color

How to print text using any one of the 256 colors that the terminal allows

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