package ANSITerminal

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This module offers basic control of ANSI compliant terminals and the windows shell.

The functions below do not send ANSI codes (i.e., do nothing or only print the output) when then output is not connected to a TTY. Functions providing information (such as pos_cursor) fail when in that situation. TTY detection is configurable by changing the value of isatty.

This library is not thread safe.

  • author Christophe Troestler (Christophe.Troestler@umons.ac.be)
  • author Vincent Hugot (vincent.hugot@gmail.com)

Colors and style

type color =
  1. | Black
  2. | Red
  3. | Green
  4. | Yellow
  5. | Blue
  6. | Magenta
  7. | Cyan
  8. | White
  9. | Default
    (*

    Default color of the terminal

    *)

Available colors.

type style =
  1. | Reset
  2. | Bold
  3. | Underlined
  4. | Inverse
  5. | Hidden
  6. | Foreground of color
  7. | Background of color

Various styles for the text. Blink and Hidden may not work on every terminal.

val black : style

Shortcut for Foreground Black

val red : style

Shortcut for Foreground Red

val green : style

Shortcut for Foreground Green

val yellow : style

Shortcut for Foreground Yellow

val blue : style

Shortcut for Foreground Blue

val magenta : style

Shortcut for Foreground Magenta

val cyan : style

Shortcut for Foreground Cyan

val white : style

Shortcut for Foreground White

val default : style

Shortcut for Foreground Default

val on_black : style

Shortcut for Background Black

val on_red : style

Shortcut for Background Red

val on_green : style

Shortcut for Background Green

val on_yellow : style

Shortcut for Background Yellow

val on_blue : style

Shortcut for Background Blue

val on_magenta : style

Shortcut for Background Magenta

val on_cyan : style

Shortcut for Background Cyan

val on_white : style

Shortcut for Background White

val on_default : style

Shortcut for Background Default

val set_autoreset : bool -> unit

Turns the autoreset feature on and off. It defaults to on.

val print_string : style list -> string -> unit

print_string attr txt prints the string txt with the attibutes attr. After printing, the attributes are automatically reseted to the defaults, unless autoreset is turned off.

val prerr_string : style list -> string -> unit

Like print_string but prints on the standard error.

val printf : style list -> ('a, unit, string, unit) format4 -> 'a

printf attr format arg1 ... argN prints the arguments arg1,...,argN according to format with the attibutes attr. After printing, the attributes are automatically reseted to the defaults, unless autoreset is turned off.

val eprintf : style list -> ('a, unit, string, unit) format4 -> 'a

Same as printf but prints the result on stderr.

val sprintf : style list -> ('a, unit, string) format -> 'a

Same as printf but returns the result in a string. This only works on ANSI compliant terminals — for which escape sequences are used — and not under Windows — where system calls are required. On Windows, it is identical to the standard sprintf.

Erasing

type loc =
  1. | Eol
  2. | Above
  3. | Below
  4. | Screen
val erase : loc -> unit

erase Eol clear from the cursor position to the end of the line without moving the cursor. erase Above erases everything before the position of the cursor. erase Below erases everything after the position of the cursor. erase Screen erases the whole screen.

This function does not modify the position of the cursor.

Cursor

val set_cursor : int -> int -> unit

set_cursor x y puts the cursor at position (x,y), x indicating the column (the leftmost one being 1) and y being the line (the topmost one being 1). If x <= 0, the x coordinate is unchanged; if y <= 0, the y coordinate is unchanged.

val move_cursor : int -> int -> unit

move_cursor x y moves the cursor by x columns (to the right if x > 0, to the left if x < 0) and by y lines (downwards if y > 0 and upwards if y < 0).

val move_bol : unit -> unit

move_bol() moves the cursor to the beginning of the current line. This is useful for progress bars for example.

val pos_cursor : unit -> int * int

pos_cursor() returns a couple (x,y) giving the current position of the cursor, x >= 1 being the column and y >= 1 the row.

val save_cursor : unit -> unit

save_cursor() saves the current position of the cursor.

val restore_cursor : unit -> unit

restore_cursor() replaces the cursor to the position saved with save_cursor().

Size

val resize : int -> int -> unit

resize width height resize the current terminal to the given width and height.

val size : unit -> int * int

size() returns a pair (width, height) giving the size of the terminal in character cells.

Scrolling

val scroll : int -> unit

scroll n scrolls the terminal by n lines, up (creating new lines at the bottom) if n > 0 and down if n < 0.

TTY

val isatty : (Unix.file_descr -> bool) ref

Function used to detect whether the current output is connected to a TTY. Defaults to Unix.isatty.