Unable to change color highlight in apt output

[StevenT]

Ubuntu Release:
lsb_release -rd
Description: Ubuntu 22.04.2 LTS
Release: 22.04

Source package and version:
dpkg-query -W apt
apt 2.4.9

Binary apt command has support for color output on some commands such as "apt list <packagename>" Where enabled the default color output is unbolded green color. This is due to the apt configuration item, APT::Color::Highlight being set to the default ANSI color code of "\x1B[32m", Setting it to another ANSI code should alter the apt output.

Expectation:Setting the Highlight configuration option to another ANSI code should alter the apt output to the specified color code.

$ apt list apt -o apt::color::highlight="\x1b[31m" should set the highlighted package name to an unbold red color.

What happens:
$ apt list apt -o apt::color::highlight="\x1b[31m"
Listing... Done
\x1b[31mapt/jammy-updates,now 2.4.9 amd64 [installed,automatic]
\x1b[31mapt/jammy-updates 2.4.9 i386

Prepends literal string of \x1b[31m instead of producing colored output.

"\033[31m" doesn't work either.

[Julian Andres Klode (juliank)]

I think you need to url encode the sequence, but not sure. I don't think there's anything we can do here about handling backslashes, the problem is backspaces do happen in actual config items and we can't introduce a behavior change for them as that would cause regressions.

You should be free to also printf the actual special character into the config option or the command line argument.

[StevenT (steventhompson)]

On 5/26/23 12:27 AM, Julian Andres Klode wrote:
> I think you need to url encode the sequence, but not sure. I don't think
> there's anything we can do here about handling backslashes, the problem
> is backspaces do happen in actual config items and we can't introduce a
> behavior change for them as that would cause regressions.
>
> You should be free to also printf the actual special character into the
> config option or the command line argument.
>

Thanks, the printf worked.