Can I configure terminal to show stderr output in different colour

Question

Is it possible to configure the terminal in OS X to show stderr output automatically in a different colour than stdout output from a process?

Or is this only possible if the process is outputting coloured output?

Sadly, as of 2019 the correct answer is this is no longer possible. Both hilite and stderred are unmaintained and broken and I am still looking for a workaround. — sorin, Sep 30, 2019 at 15:34
@sorin I just installed hilite via Homebrew, it still works as expected (would be surprised if not actually, it uses very basic functionality to accomplish its task). — nohillside, Sep 30, 2019 at 16:01
@sorin stderred may not work any longer as it seems to change the location dynamic libraries are loaded from, which may be prevented by SIP nowaydays — nohillside, Sep 30, 2019 at 16:02

onetom · Accepted Answer · 2022-10-30 09:44:55Z

There is no straightforward solution, but there are at least a few workarounds available to do this.

You can install hilite by building the single C file (hilite.c in this case) or by using brew install hilite (with homebrew installed on the system). Use it as hilite <command>.
You can use the command from this answer on serverfault (substitute command with the name of your script/command) to make stderr appear in red (for other colors, refer the ANSI escape sequences list and change the 31m in the below command accordingly):
```
  command 2> >(while IFS= read -r line; do echo -e "\e[01;31m$line\e[0m" >&2; done)
```
You can use stderred to color stderr in red.

Matthieu Riegler · Accepted Answer · 2013-11-04 13:22:19Z

3

You may want to have a look at stderred which allows to output Stderr in red.

It's OSX compatible and there is a manual to install it on OSX.

answered Nov 4, 2013 at 13:22

Matthieu Riegler

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