Converting colored output into html

Question

There are tools providing coloured output:

dwdiff -c File1 File2 # word level diff
grep --color=always # we all know this guy
...

The question is: How to convert their colored output of arbitrary program into coloured html file?

Other output formats might be suitable as well (LaTeX would be great). I think html is good starting point, as it's easy to convert it to other formats.

(For curious how to keep terminal colour codes, please follow answer: https://unix.stackexchange.com/a/10832/9689 ... | unbuffer command_with_colours arg1 arg2 | ... - tool unbuffer is part of expect )

Answer 1

The answer to this question is probably what you want.

It links to these tools, which do the conversion you're looking for:

• Perl package HTML::FromANSI

• aha, a C-language program (github repo)

Answer 2

Or just a shell script

https://github.com/pixelb/scripts/blob/master/scripts/ansi2html.sh

More details of this script http://pablomarin-garcia.blogspot.com/2011/04/converting-ansi-to-html-how-to-convert.html

Answer 3

ansi2html, on pypi.

One may derive immoderate amounts of enjoyment from piping regular shell output through lolcat then through ansi2html. Some thing like:

… | lolcat -f | ansi2html -ip

Answer 4

You can try vim with AnsiEsc.vim plugin to view ANSI colors through escape codes, then redirect to standard output to vim - (make sure you've activated :syntax on). Then convert the file to HTML by vim command: :TOhtml. The generated HTML file should have coloured output.

---

To convert source code non-interactively into html, try the following command:

vim -E -s -c "let g:html_no_progress=1" -c "syntax on" -c "set ft=c" -c "runtime syntax/2html.vim" -cwqa myfile.c

^{Source: :help g:html_no_progress (part of :help TOhtml).}

^{Note: You can use - instead of the myfile.c, to convert code from standard input.}

Answer 5

You can use vim. This is part of a script I use to convert diff output to HTML.

vim -n \
    -c ':%s%^+  %+++    ' \
    -c ':%s%^-  %---    ' \
    -c ':%s%^   %       ' \
    -c ':set nu' \
    -c ':let html_use_css=1' \
    -c ':so $VIMRUNTIME/syntax/2html.vim' \
    -c ':wq' -c ':qa!' $input > /dev/null 2> /dev/null

After this, I run sed to change the CSS and the title to be exactly what I want them to be.

*Edit: I should have mentioned that to get color, you need to have syntax highlighting turned on. I do that in my .vimrc, but if you wanted to add it here it would just be another line like

-c ':syntax on' \

Answer 6

Update: I've added a perl method, using module HTML::FromANSI from CPAN .. To install it, just extract it to a directory, and run, as root: perl -MCPAN -e 'install HTML::FromANSI' from that directory. The particular feature to suit your request is a script called ansi2html. Interestingly enough, it shows the same loss-of-color after the overlaid k in the filenames, as does the elisp-shell script... Here is an example usage:

ls -l --color=always /bin/*k* | 
 grep --color=always "k\|x\|2010" |
  ansi2html  >/tmp/example.html
firefox /tmp/example.html

Here is the html output. as seen in Firefox:

---

Here is a method using an emacs elisp-shell script... for the example, called htmlize ...Emacs does not need to be running.

I originally tested it on a black background, but I noticed that for some reason, a white background doesn't play well with one of the introduced Escape Codes,\e[K, which seems to be ERASE_LINE (Erase the current line of terminal output). I've added a line to remove this Escape Code. It now works for a white background.

Here is an example of color highlighted output from ls being piped to grep for further color highlighting.

ls -l --color=always /bin/*k* | 
 grep --color=always "k\|x\|2010" >/tmp/example
htmlize /tmp/example
firefox /tmp/example.html

this is the elsip-shell script.

#!/bin/sh
":"; exec /usr/bin/emacs -Q --script "$0" -- "$@" # -*-emacs-lisp-*-
(require 'ansi-color) (require 'htmlize)
(find-file (setq path-in (cadr argv)))
(ansi-color-apply-on-region (point-min) (point-max))
(switch-to-buffer (buffer-name (htmlize-buffer)))
(write-file (concat path-in ".html"))

Here is a sample of the html output, in Firefox... If I get time, I'll look further into the overlaying ANSI codes issue. where the red ks overlap the green filenames, but that is only there because of a hurriedly chosen test regex for grep... (maybe that is something \e[K influences...

Answer 7

As of 2021, there also is ansi2html which is avaliable in the Debian package "colorized-logs".

Answer 8

There is simple and versatile npm command line tool ansi-to-html that can convert easily shell colored output to html.

git log --color | ansi-to-html --newline > ansi.html

There are options to change the foreground and background color also.

    -f, --fg         The background color used for resets (#000)
    -b, --bg         The foreground color used for resets (#FFF)

ansi-to-html npm module.

It can also be used without installing, with npx command.

git log --color | npx ansi-to-html --newline > ansi.html

Answer 9

For those who have a command that is written on the assumption that piped output will never have color (e.g. some testing frameworks) you may find it useful to use the script utility to first save the ansi output. This can then be pushed to aha or the other utilities mentioned.

Answer 10

This is just a followup of @user17591 solution -- vim scripting:

#!/usr/bin/vim -ns
:%s%^+  %+++
:%s%^-  %---
:%s%^   %
:set nu
:let html_use_css=1
:so $VIMRUNTIME/syntax/2html.vim
:wq
:qa!

chmod it and

Usage: htmlvim file (to produce file.html)