epics-base/documentation/new-notes/PR-644.md

Expand the use of colour in the IOCs output

This release includes various changes to iocsh.cpp and elsewhere to add and expand the use of color:

• When loading a startup script, the IOC Shell now displays comment lines in blue, and uses bold to make command lines stand out from other text.

• The softIoc -v output also uses the above color scheme for the commands it prints.

• The default IOC Shell prompt is now displayed in green; this color can be modified in the configure/CONFIG_SITE_ENV file for all targets, or set for a specific target by adding a configure/os/CONFIG_SITE_ENV.<arch> file. The value of the IOCSH_PS1 environment paremeter in those files can use the ANSI_ENV_* and ANSI_*() color macros found in errlog.h to configure the appearance of the prompt. The C string literal concatenation syntax can be used to construct the prompt string:

    IOCSH_PS1 = ANSI_ESC_RED "e" ANSI_ESC_YELLOW "p" ANSI_ESC_GREEN "i" \
        ANSI_ESC_CYAN "c" ANSI_BLUE("s") "> "

• More error messages printed by IOC Shell commands now appear in red, or use the red ERROR prefix that was introduced in previous releases.

• The word "Illegal" has been replaced with "Invalid" in several Shell error messages.

• The iocsh var command now shows the data type of the registered variables as well as their values.