permacomputing

commit a3c2fbacf5a5da6fb94a7705a5a0be4c56838f21
parent 88ea9d320a421464117d7774ff3b954a593855da
Author: Nick Moffitt <nick@zork.net>
Date:   Wed, 20 May 2026 09:25:14 +0100

explaining colour detection

Diffstat:
M
spacehobo.mdwn
 | 
13
+++++++++++++

1 file changed, 13 insertions(+), 0 deletions(-)
diff --git a/spacehobo.mdwn b/spacehobo.mdwn
@@ -51,4 +51,17 @@ _noop[0]='array accesses turn 0/nonzero into defined/undef!'
   PS1+='\$ '
 ```
 
+### Here's how we detect colour support
+
+Most terminals support the standard ANSI escape sequences now, but we still have to be careful.  This catches ghostty, kitty, foot, and any terminal type with `color` in the name (such as `tmux-256color` or `xterm-256color-bce`).
+
+```
+case "$TERM" in 
+    *[is]tty*|foot*|*color*) color_prompt=yes;; 
+    *) [ -x /usr/bin/tput ] && tput setaf 1 >&/dev/null && color_prompt=yes;;
+esac
+```
+
+If it doesn't find your terminal in that list, and the system you're on has `ncurses` installed, then it will try to send a code for red text to `/dev/null` with the `tput` command, and keep you colour-free if that fails.
+
 # I just think it's neat!