RAINBOW(1)

🌈 RAINBOW(1) 🌈

General Commands Manual

okay so you're reading the rainbow(1) page from the General Commands Manual, and bestie, it's giving terminal glow-up. 💅✨

🌸 NAME 🌸

rainbow — colorize commands output using patterns. periodt. 💖

🦋 SYNOPSIS 🦋

rainbow [rainbow options...] command [command args...]

command [command args...] | rainbow [rainbow options...]

✨ DESCRIPTION ✨

rainbow displays command output with matching words or regular expressions colored. If you don’t specify a command, STDIN is used, no cap. 🫶

👑 OPTIONS 👑

These programs follow the usual GNU command line syntax, with long options starting with two dashes (-). A summary of options is included below, and yes, we’re going through all of them. 💀✨

🧸 Common options 🧸

-v, --version — show program's version number and exit.
-h, --help — show help message and exit.
--print-path — Print config paths and exit.
--print-config-names — Print config names and exit.
-f CONFIG, --config CONFIG — Load a config file defining patterns. Go to /usr/share/rainbow/configs for examples. The option can be called several times. 🎀
--disable-stderr-filtering — Disable STDERR filtering.

⚠️ heads up, bestie: disabling STDERR filtering can have unexpected effects on commands directly using tty (such as top). 😭

🎨 Foreground color 🎨

Use these options to associate patterns to text foreground colors. it's giving paint palette but make it terminal. 🌈

-r, --red PATTERN — print pattern in red.
--lightred PATTERN — print pattern in light red.
-g, --green PATTERN — print pattern in green.
--lightgreen PATTERN — print pattern in light green.
-y, --yellow PATTERN — print pattern in yellow.
--lightyellow PATTERN — print pattern in light yellow.
-b, --blue PATTERN — print pattern in blue.
--lightblue PATTERN — print pattern in light blue.
-m, --magenta PATTERN — print pattern in magenta.
-c, --cyan PATTERN — print pattern in cyan.
--lightcyan PATTERN — print pattern in light cyan.
--red-before PATTERN — toggle foreground to red on beginning of pattern.
--lightred-before PATTERN — toggle foreground to light red on beginning of pattern.
--green-before PATTERN — toggle foreground to green on beginning of pattern.
--lightgreen-before PATTERN — toggle foreground to light green on beginning of pattern.
--yellow-before PATTERN — toggle foreground to yellow on beginning of pattern.
--lightyellow-before PATTERN — toggle foreground to light yellow on beginning of pattern.
--blue-before PATTERN — toggle foreground to blue on beginning of pattern.
--lightblue-before PATTERN — toggle foreground to light blue on beginning of pattern.
--magenta-before PATTERN — toggle foreground to magenta on beginning of pattern.
--cyan-before PATTERN — toggle foreground to cyan on beginning of pattern.
--lightcyan-before PATTERN — toggle foreground to light cyan on beginning of pattern.
--reset-before PATTERN — reset foreground color on beginning of pattern.
--red-after PATTERN — toggle foreground to red on end of pattern.
--lightred-after PATTERN — toggle foreground to light red on end of pattern.
--green-after PATTERN — toggle foreground to green on end of pattern.
--lightgreen-after PATTERN — toggle foreground to light green on end of pattern.
--yellow-after PATTERN — toggle foreground to yellow on end of pattern.
--lightyellow-after PATTERN — toggle foreground to light yellow on end of pattern.
--blue-after PATTERN — toggle foreground to blue on end of pattern.
--lightblue-after PATTERN — toggle foreground to light blue on end of pattern.
--magenta-after PATTERN — toggle foreground to magenta on end of pattern.
--cyan-after PATTERN — toggle foreground to cyan on end of pattern.
--lightcyan-after PATTERN — toggle foreground to light cyan on end of pattern.
--reset-after PATTERN — reset foreground color on end of pattern.

🍓 Background color 🍓

Use these options to associate patterns to text background colors. highkey iconic for making stuff pop. 💖

--background-red PATTERN — print pattern with red background.
--background-lightred PATTERN — print pattern with light red background.
--background-green PATTERN — print pattern with green background.
--background-lightgreen PATTERN — print pattern with light green background.
--background-yellow PATTERN — print pattern with yellow background.
--background-lightyellow PATTERN — print pattern with light yellow background.
--background-blue PATTERN — print pattern with blue background.
--background-lightblue PATTERN — print pattern with light blue background.
--background-magenta PATTERN — print pattern with magenta background.
--background-cyan PATTERN — print pattern with cyan background.
--background-lightcyan PATTERN — print pattern with light cyan background.
--background-red-before PATTERN — toggle background to red on beginning of pattern.
--background-lightred-before PATTERN — toggle background to light red on beginning of pattern.
--background-green-before PATTERN — toggle background to green on beginning of pattern.
--background-lightgreen-before PATTERN — toggle background to light green on beginning of pattern.
--background-yellow-before PATTERN — toggle background to yellow on beginning of pattern.
--background-lightyellow-before PATTERN — toggle background to light yellow on beginning of pattern.
--background-blue-before PATTERN — toggle background to blue on beginning of pattern.
--background-lightblue-before PATTERN — toggle background to light blue on beginning of pattern.
--background-magenta-before PATTERN — toggle background to magenta on beginning of pattern.
--background-cyan-before PATTERN — toggle background to cyan on beginning of pattern.
--background-lightcyan-before PATTERN — toggle background to light cyan on beginning of pattern.
--background-reset-before PATTERN — reset background color on beginning of pattern.
--background-red-after PATTERN — toggle background to red on end of pattern.
--background-lightred-after PATTERN — toggle background to light red on end of pattern.
--background-green-after PATTERN — toggle background to green on end of pattern.
--background-lightgreen-after PATTERN — toggle background to light green on end of pattern.
--background-yellow-after PATTERN — toggle background to yellow on end of pattern.
--background-lightyellow-after PATTERN — toggle background to light yellow on end of pattern.
--background-blue-after PATTERN — toggle background to blue on end of pattern.
--background-lightblue-after PATTERN — toggle background to light blue on end of pattern.
--background-magenta-after PATTERN — toggle background to magenta on end of pattern.
--background-cyan-after PATTERN — toggle background to cyan on end of pattern.
--background-lightcyan-after PATTERN — toggle background to light cyan on end of pattern.
--background-reset-after PATTERN — reset background color on end of pattern.

🧚 Text effects 🧚

Use these options to associate patterns to text effects. this is where it gets extra, and we love that for us. ✨

--bold PATTERN — print pattern in bold.
--bold-before PATTERN — toggle bold on beginning of pattern.
--bold-after PATTERN — toggle bold on end of pattern.
--faint PATTERN — print pattern with decreased intensity.
--faint-before PATTERN — toggle faint on beginning of pattern.
--faint-after PATTERN — toggle faint on end of pattern.
--intensity-reset-before PATTERN — reset text intensity (bold, faint) on beginning of pattern.
--intensity-reset-after PATTERN — reset text intensity (bold, faint) on end of pattern.
--italic PATTERN — print pattern in italic.
--italic-before PATTERN — toggle italic on beginning of pattern.
--italic-after PATTERN — toggle italic on end of pattern.
--italic-reset-before PATTERN — reset italic on beginning of pattern.
--italic-reset-after PATTERN — reset italic on end of pattern.
--underline PATTERN — print pattern underlined.
--underline-before PATTERN — toggle underline on beginning of pattern.
--underline-after PATTERN — toggle underline on end of pattern.
--underline-double PATTERN — print pattern double underlined.
--underline-double-before PATTERN — toggle double underline on beginning of pattern.
--underline-double-after PATTERN — toggle double underline on end of pattern.
--underline-reset-before PATTERN — reset underline on beginning of pattern.
--underline-reset-after PATTERN — reset underline on end of pattern.
--blink PATTERN — print pattern blinking.
--blink-before PATTERN — toggle blinking on beginning of pattern.
--blink-after PATTERN — toggle blinking on end of pattern.
--blink-rapid PATTERN — print pattern blinking rapidly.
--blink-rapid-before PATTERN — toggle rapid blinking on beginning of pattern.
--blink-rapid-after PATTERN — toggle rapid blinking on end of pattern.
--blink-reset-before PATTERN — reset blinking on beginning of pattern.
--blink-reset-after PATTERN — reset blinking on end of pattern.
--negative PATTERN — print pattern swapping foreground and background.
--negative-before PATTERN — toggle negative on beginning of pattern.
--negative-after PATTERN — toggles negative on at the end of every PATTERN match 🎀 (so the vibes flip right after)
--negative-reset-before PATTERN — resets negative back off at the beginning of PATTERN, bestie
--negative-reset-after PATTERN — resets negative back off at the end of PATTERN
--hide PATTERN — prints that PATTERN hidden 👻 (it's there, you just can't see it)
--hide-before PATTERN — toggles hiding on at the beginning of PATTERN
--hide-after PATTERN — toggles hiding on at the end of PATTERN
--hide-reset-before PATTERN — resets hiding off at the beginning of PATTERN
--hide-reset-after PATTERN — resets hiding off at the end of PATTERN
--reset-all PATTERN — resets all colors for PATTERN 🔄
--reset-all-before PATTERN — resets all colors at the beginning of PATTERN
--reset-all-after PATTERN — resets all colors at the end of PATTERN

🌈 EXAMPLES (the part where it gets real) 🌈

Colorize the diff command output using the builtin config — literally the easiest slay ever:

rainbow diff file1 file2

Colorize the ping command output using the builtin config:

rainbow ping www.google.com

Ping Google with IP addresses colorized in red 🔴 (so the numbers pop, iykyk):

rainbow --red '\d{1,3}\.\d{1,3}\.\d{1,3}\.\d{1,3}' ping www.google.com

Pipe content to rainbow instead of providing a command — yes bestie, stdin works too:

tail -f my-file.log | rainbow --config my-config

🎀 CONFIGS 🎀

The -f or --config option lets you load patterns defined in a configuration file, like so:

rainbow --config MY_CONFIG

Now here's the tea ☕ — rainbow will look for the config at the following places, in the following order (first one wins, periodt):

$RAINBOW_CONFIGS/MY_CONFIG
$RAINBOW_CONFIGS/MY_CONFIG.cfg
$XDG_CONFIG_HOME/rainbow/MY_CONFIG
$XDG_CONFIG_HOME/rainbow/MY_CONFIG.cfg
~/.rainbow/MY_CONFIG
~/.rainbow/MY_CONFIG.cfg
/etc/rainbow/MY_CONFIG
/etc/rainbow/MY_CONFIG.cfg
<rainbow builtin configs>/MY_CONFIG
<rainbow builtin configs>/usr/share/rainbow/configs/MY_CONFIG.cfg

rainbow comes bundled with several configs 💅 — for example for the ping, top and diff commands, for Tomcat/JBoss logs, etc. And the best part? You can override the default configs with your own ones just by placing them in $RAINBOW_CONFIGS, ~/.rainbow or /etc/rainbow 🫶

💀 BUGS 💀

Please report bugs to https://github.com/nicoulaj/rainbow/issues — the maintainers are literally waiting to hear from you, no cap 🙈

👑 AUTHOR 👑

This manual page was written by Julien Nicoulaud <julien.nicoulaud@gmail.com>, for the rainbow project (https://github.com/nicoulaj/rainbow), and may be used by others. Giving credit where it's due, as you should 🌸

okay that's the whole page bestie, go forth and colorize everything ✨ 💜 This was RAINBOW(1) — the rainbow manual from the rainbow project over at https://github.com/nicoulaj/rainbow — and that footer line is your official seal, so screenshot it and frame it 🎀🦋

📦 where this page comes from

opensuse-leap 16.0: rainbow 2.8.0-bp160.1.10 · GPL-3.0-or-later
💖 girlified by deepseek-ai/DeepSeek-V4.1-Flash-1017 on 2026-11-04: a language model's rewrite of the original, under its terms