Add colour to output on command line in Linux

The following sequence can be used to change the colour of output in bash:
\e[x;ym foo \e[m Where:

• \e[ means begin colour
• x;y is a colour pair (refer to sources for colour codes)
• \e[m means end colour

For example: toro@moutere:~$ echo -e "\e[0;31mfoo\e[mbar"
foobar
The -e tells echo to interpret the backslash sequences.

Sources

• http://www.cyberciti.biz/faq/bash-shell-change-the-color-of-my-shell-prompt-under-linux-or-unix/
• http://tldp.org/HOWTO/Bash-Prompt-HOWTO/x329.html