Hack 40. Change the prompt color using tput

by Ramesh

You can also change color of the PS1 prompt using tput as shown below:

$ export PS1="\[$(tput bold)$(tput setb 4)$(tput setaf 7)\]\u@\h:\w $ \[$(tput sgr0)\]“

tput Color Capabilities:

• tput setab [1-7] – Set a background color using ANSI escape
• tput setb [1-7] – Set a background color
• tput setaf [1-7] – Set a foreground color using ANSI escape
• tput setf [1-7] – Set a foreground color

tput Text Mode Capabilities:

• tput bold – Set bold mode
• tput dim – turn on half-bright mode
• tput smul – begin underline mode
• tput rmul – exit underline mode
• tput rev – Turn on reverse mode
• tput smso – Enter standout mode (bold on rxvt)
• tput rmso – Exit standout mode
• tput sgr0 – Turn off all attributes

Color Code for tput:

• 0 – Black
• 1 – Red
• 2 – Green
• 3 – Yellow
• 4 – Blue
• 5 – Magenta
• 6 – Cyan
• 7 – White