Thanks wisecracker for your reply,the actual requirement in our project is that we have a java program that prints text to the terminal when manually run and red when printed in all instances is an error,our requirement is that we need to send an email whenever red is outputted.
Now this check is being done manually we are planning to convert to cron tab and divert this output to a file and mail in cases only when file has anything in red color.But the problem here is when I redirect I am lossing the colors

---------- Post updated at 08:12 PM ---------- Previous update was at 08:10 PM ----------

In short the question is how do the retain color when text is redirected to a file.

ls -l --color|less -R would retain color

but how to I retain color when

someunixcommandwhich prints colored text>filename