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Date: Wed, 31 Dec 2014 21:47:44 -0800
From: Ray Andrews <rayandrews@eastlink.ca>
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To: Zsh Users <zsh-users@zsh.org>
Subject: print color escapes
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All,

     $ print -r "\e[36msome cyanide salts are cyan\e[0m"
\e[36msome cyanide salts are cyan\e[0m

... does as expected, but how does one achieve the same 'literalness' if 
color escapes are in variables? I was forcing the 'colors' array to 
print bold colors and in the process the only way I could figure out to 
print the actual values of the 'fg[color]' colors was like this:

     $ print -r "before $($fg[cyan]) after"
     command not found: ^[[36m

... which is a bit clumsy, but it does at least show what's in there.  I 
tried various things, but can't find a legit way of printing the values 
of the color escapes.  How should it be done? Single quotes obviously 
won't work, double quotes seem needed to expand the variable, but I 
haven't found a way to stop it from being de-literalized.  But there 
will be a way.  Probably some magic nesting of braces. I'd expect 'print 
-r' to 'stay literal' with the expanded variable but no luck.