Define Custom Colors

[MMore]

I tried to setup some custom colors in my zsh according to http://www.dawoodfall.net/index.php/custom-zsh-prompts. But it does not work.

ugrey="%{^[[01;04;30m%}"
PROMPT="%(!.%{$fg[red]%}.$ugrey%n@)%m:%{$fg_bold[green]%}%c %{$reset_color%}%# "

But in my shell this appears: ^[[01;04;30muser@host:~ %

Anyone?

[bendemaree]

oh-my-zsh uses spectrum by @sykora: https://github.com/sykora/etc/blob/master/zsh/functions/spectrum/

So you can do something like this:

eval my_orange='$FG[202]'
eval my_purple='$FG[098]'
eval my_yellow='$FG[228]'

to retrieve colors from the $FG variable. They must be three digit zero-padded.

Enjoy!

[MMore]

Ok, I just tried your code.

eval my_purple='$FG[228]'
PROMPT="$my_purple%c %{$reset_color%}%# "

Result is a blinking path. There is no color, only my default color. Besides that, I am able to use predefined colors like %{$fg[red]%}. Do you have any ideas?

[bendemaree]

You must be sure you're actually using a 256-color terminal mode. For instance, on Ubuntu, one must usually run

export TERM="xterm-256color"

to enable 256-color support in Gnome Terminal. The reason I say this is it happened to me the other day...things were blinking and underlined and whatnot.

[MMore]

I am using the Terminal App of OSX. It seems to be that it ignores this TERM setting. In the preferences of this app there is also no option to enable the 256 color mode.

Is there another possibility to set custom colors in zsh?

Thank you!

[bendemaree]

I can't help much with Terminal.app; I use iTerm2 and you should check it out. It will support 256 colors.

The issue is not ZSH. Color codes must be interpreted by the terminal app. If the terminal only has limited (16 color) support, other codes will fall back to somewhat unpredictable values (like the blinking effect). The terminal must be able to parse the codes (like the ones you were originally working with, that are now supplied by the $FG variable) to show the colors.

[apjanke]

FYI, current versions of Terminal.app have 256 color support, at least since Lion. (It declares $TERM as xterm-256color by default.) The setting for what $TERM it declares is in Preferences > Settings > Advanced > "Declare terminal as:", and is set on a per-profile basis.

BTW, inside prompts, you can use the more concise %F/%f codes. (%F{color} to start a color, %f to return to the default color.) Your prompt can be rewritten like this, and it works fine for me in Terminal.app on OS X 10.9.5.

PROMPT='%(!.%F{red}.%F{241}%n)@%m:%B%F{green}%c%f%b # '