UNIX for Dummies Questions & Answers

Hello,
Can anyone explain this line of code

Code:

echo -e "\033[0;32m${1}\033[m"

What does '\033' do
what does [0;32m do
what does [m do?

I tried testing this line using a script
Whatever i pass as input to the script it is spit out

the developer could have simply said echo $1
why did he use all of this " \033[0;32m${1}\033[m "

Thanks,
R

octal 33 is escape: http://invisible-island.net/xterm/ctlseqs/ctlseqs.html

Hi,
You can see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ANSI_escape_code.
Regards.

-e turns on to interpret escape sequences (-E disables)
\033 is the hexadecimal representation of ASCII 027, which is the escape code

Thinking back to early programming days, we would often send an escape character followed by other characters to turn on a function. For instance to make something bold, change color, change spacing.
Thus, my thinking is that the first code
[0;32m is to turn on something, while
\033[m is the escape character and a code to turn it back off.

I do not recognize either segment. Then again, it has been a long time since I had to send escape sequences to output (screen, printer) devices.

As noted above, these are ANSI terminal escape codes recognized by several terminals and terminal emulators. In this case, \033[0;32m, requests that following text be printed in green, and \033[0m returns to normal text display. So whatever $1 expands to will be displayed in green.

Thank you joeyg and Don Cragun for the wonderful explanation; However what could be the reasons when you dont require coloring, can you explain a scenario where coloring helps..
To me without understanding the concept behind coloring ; it simply looks to me as adding unnecessary complexity to the code.

We explained what one echo statement does for you. There is no way for us to guess why the person who wrote that code decided that that text should be printed in green. You'll have to either ask the person who wrote the code why (s)he did that or ask the people who run that script if they want that text to be presented that way.