How to change background color of FreeBSD terminal

[smithi]

I just use default csh.

echo -e "\e[=4G"

Works in sh(1), but not in csh(1) nor /bin/echo.

Seems echo doesn't have '-e' argument/flag/switch so echoes '-e "\e[=4G"' literally.

Yes. From csh, this (edited) works:

% sh -c 'echo -e "\e[=4G" '

(but eww, how do I turn it off!?)

 

[ralphbsz]

Yes. From csh, this (edited) works:
... using sh just to get sh's builtin echo ...

Icky. In that case, I would suggest embedding the escape character in the command or script, by using the appropriate quote character (control-V for both shells at the command line, if you're editing a script whatever editor you're using, control-Q in emacs).

How do I turn it off? No idea. Try all possible values of "4" in the command?

 

[smithi]

Icky. In that case, I would suggest embedding the escape character in the command or script, by using the appropriate quote character (control-V for both shells at the command line, if you're editing a script whatever editor you're using, control-Q in emacs).

Nothing icky about using
sh -c 'sh command/s'
where appropriate, from another shell.

I mostly use that when avoiding csh's (admittedly icky) stderr redirections, such as

sh -c 'somecommand >somefile 2>/dev/null'

How do I turn it off? No idea. Try all possible values of "4" in the command?

I was about to say I only know one value of 4 while hinting for the right manual, but this works even in vt(4):

% vidcontrol lightwhite black

 

[dchmelik]

Neither tput nor echo (even with sh) work for me to change colours on FreeBSD 14.

 

[Erichans]

I'm still on 13 and my (tcsh) $term is xterm-256color, but perhaps just as an experiment try using sysutils/tmux/ and set in ~/.tmux.conf: setw -g window-active-style fg=black,bg=white

If that works then, perhaps, you're one step closer to solving the problem.

 

[dchmelik]

The original poster said 'the FreeBSD terminal' which means tty, not xterm. I don't know why in five years no one said you can for example reverse this with 'vidcontrol black white'.

 

[smithi]

The original poster said 'the FreeBSD terminal' which means tty, not xterm. I don't know why in five years no one said you can for example reverse this with 'vidcontrol black white'.

this works even in vt(4):

% vidcontrol lightwhite black

Different values, same principle.