Should the following always indicate that I can use escape sequences and tput to colorize things?
if [[ $TERM == *"color"* ]]; then
true
else
false
fi
Bash – Does “color” in TERM always mean I can use colors
bashbashrccolorsterminalterminal-emulator
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Best Answer
No: the name of the terminal description is irrelevant.
TERMis the name of a terminal description. There are a lot, and most of the terminals which support color do not have "color" in their names. There is for instance no reason why a terminal description could not be named "no-color".Programs that use the terminal description look at the capabilities listed in it. There are of course a lot of hard-coded programs which assume things about the name of a terminal description.
According to the ncurses FAQ My terminal doesn't recognize color, the terminal description should say how many colors the terminal supports, as well as how to set the foreground and background colors.
You can use
tputto obtain the number of colors:since a missing
colorscapability makestputreturn-1.