Is there anyway to pass terminal colors through a pipe?
As a simple example, ls -l --color=always | grep ii.
When you just run the ls -l --color=always part alone, you get the filenames color coded. But adding grep ii removes the color coding and just has the grep match highlighting.
Screenshot of both examples:
In the above example I would want ii.mp3 and ii.png filenames to retain the cyan and magenta highlighting, respectively. With or without the grep match highlighting.
Question is not specific to ls or grep.
If this is possible, is there a correct term/name for it? I am unable to locate anything.
Color codes will pass through pipes just like any other output.
In this case, your grep is being smarter than you want and actually parsing the incoming color codes itself.
You can try a simpler program like
head,tail, or evensed -n /ii/pto see it for yourself.You can also control GNU grep’s color processing with
--colorbut you may not find exactly what you seek.