2

While "How to echo with different colors in the Windows command line" is widely explained here

How to echo with different colors in the Windows command line

it fails inside a for loop, as chersun already noted:

@JensA.Koch This is awesome. But I have a problem with it running in a for loop. Only the first echo gets properly colored, after that all other ones just print all escape characters instead of changing anything. Batch file is to archive each folder to separate archive, trying to ouput folder name in bold, followed by archiver standard output with findstr filtering. – chersun Apr 22 '18 at 21:36

I am opening a new question as I have not enough reputation to post in the above one.

Only solution I found was to include after the for command (inside the do block) a dummy CMD /C Echo/ as a workaround.

Are there any better ways?

TIA

Edit: Thanks for the comments, here goes the batch file

out of the block, colors go well. the issue goes with the CHOICE, if removed problem disapears. Solution is to include the "empty" CMD

Answer Y to the execution to see failed output

@ECHO OFF
for /F %%a in ('echo prompt $E ^| cmd') do set "_esc=%%a"
set _redon=%_esc%[91m
set _greenon=%_esc%[92m
set _coloff=%_esc%[0m
SET _free=1000
SET _used=2000
ECHO %_redon%!_used!%_coloff% / %_greenon%!_free!%_coloff%
SETLOCAL EnableDelayedExpansion
FOR /L %%A IN (1,1,5) DO (
    CHOICE /C YN /T 5 /D N /N /M "Press Y to process %%A"
    IF "!ERRORLEVEL!"=="1" (
        SET _free=1000
        SET _used=2000
REM needed CMD to return proper behaviour
REM     CMD /C echo/
        ECHO %_redon%!_used!%_coloff% / %_greenon%!_free!%_coloff%
    )
)
PAUSE
EXIT

Thanks to @Stephan for beautifying the code.

caspertone2003
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  • 3
  • See answer here for a way that will work on all windows computers https://stackoverflow.com/questions/54657208/command-prompt-scripting-problem-with-multiple-colors-in-a-batch-file/54658409 – Noodles Apr 28 '19 at 21:47
  • Sorry, while I tried to have question focused, being a newbie here is not helping ... I would like to know why it fails, and if there is a better solution than using CMD /C Echo/ - I do not need cross portability or the use of external programas or change the technique - for me it is very straitforward to use the escape codes. Only that introducing the CHOICE and the IF breaks the "normal" run. As far as I read, the break is expected behaviour when external programs are called, but with CHOICE??? – caspertone2003 Apr 28 '19 at 22:09
  • Further background on the subject: https://wpdev.uservoice.com/forums/266908-command-prompt-console-bash-on-ubuntu-on-windo/suggestions/15617610--re-enable-enable-virtual-terminal-processing-by (I got from there the idea to include CMD call) https://stackoverflow.com/questions/51680709/colored-text-output-in-powershell-console-using-ansi-vt100-codes https://bugs.python.org/issue30075 https://github.com/rprichard/winpty/issues/92 https://github.com/ytdl-org/youtube-dl/issues/15758 – caspertone2003 Apr 28 '19 at 22:24
  • Because it is a new feature of Windows so most Windows can't use it. You also have to turn it on. See `set /?` about delayed expansion. – Noodles Apr 28 '19 at 22:29

1 Answers1

1

I can't reproduce:

EDIT:changed to create the ESC symbol in a portable way, thanks to @Aacini

@echo off
cls
for /F %%a in ('echo prompt $E ^| cmd') do set "ESC=%%a"

echo ^<ESC^>[0m %ESC%[0mReset%ESC%[0m

for %%A in (
    7,30,31,32,33,34,35,36,37,
    40,41,42,43,44,45,46,47,
    90,91,92,93,94,95,96,97,
    100,101,102,103,104,105,106,107
) Do echo ^<ESC^>[%%Am %ESC%[%%AmTest%ESC%[0m

enter image description here