If you need to call attention to a message within your script, a splash of color is often the best way to get noticed in the sea of monochrome text.
The standard ANSI escape codes are supported at most consoles, and in its simplest form can be used like this:
RED='\033[0;31m'
GREEN='\033[0;32m'
NC='\033[0m'
echo -e "${GREEN}OK${NC} you just did something great!"
echo -e "${RED}FAIL${NC} oops, there was an error in processing"
Which would output text that looks like:
OK you just did something great!
FAIL oops, there was an error in processing
The “-e” is necessary for echo to allow backslashes. A list of foreground colors can be found here. A more comprehensive list of foreground/background colors is listed on wikipedia.
REFERENCES
stackoverflow, changing the output color of echo
howtogeek, color your PS1 prompt
linuxnix.com, control commands within PS1 prompt
NOTES
coloring the console prompt, “\h” is hostname, “\u” user, “\p” path
export PS1="\[\033[01;32m\]\h\[\033[0m\] ${debian_chroot:+($debian_chroot)}\u:\w\$ "