blink code(escape code) has been removed?

Question

According to Bash tips: Colors and formatting (ANSI/VT100 Control sequences) I attemped to active blink code in my program, But may be blink code has been eliminated. Is it true?

If is not true, Please help me to use blink code.

Answer 1

The blink feature depends upon the terminal (or terminal emulator). Most terminals you will use accept the control sequences documented in ECMA-48, e.g., VT100-compatible. The control sequence may

• cause blinking on a given terminal, or
• show as a particular color, or
• simply ignored by a given terminal

Applications usually use a terminal description (terminfo or termcap). If the terminal description does not tell how to blink, then the application will not know either.

If your computer has infocmp (for terminfo), that will show the capabilities listed in the terminal description. bash only looks for blink — using the termcap name, since it is a termcap application. More generally, terminfo can also describe how to blink using sgr (which is not available in termcap descriptions).

For example, this is a terminfo description of vt100:

> infocmp vt100
#       Reconstructed via infocmp from file: /usr/local/ncurses/share/terminfo/v/vt100
vt100|vt100-am|dec vt100 (w/advanced video),
        am, mc5i, msgr, xenl, xon,
        cols#80, it#8, lines#24, vt#3,
        acsc=``aaffggjjkkllmmnnooppqqrrssttuuvvwwxxyyzz{{||}}~~,
        bel=^G, blink=\E[5m$<2>, bold=\E[1m$<2>,
        clear=\E[H\E[J$<50>, cr=^M, csr=\E[%i%p1%d;%p2%dr,
        cub=\E[%p1%dD, cub1=^H, cud=\E[%p1%dB, cud1=^J,
        cuf=\E[%p1%dC, cuf1=\E[C$<2>,
        cup=\E[%i%p1%d;%p2%dH$<5>, cuu=\E[%p1%dA,
        cuu1=\E[A$<2>, ed=\E[J$<50>, el=\E[K$<3>, el1=\E[1K$<3>,
        enacs=\E(B\E)0, home=\E[H, ht=^I, hts=\EH, ind=^J, ka1=\EOq,
        ka3=\EOs, kb2=\EOr, kbs=^H, kc1=\EOp, kc3=\EOn, kcub1=\EOD,
        kcud1=\EOB, kcuf1=\EOC, kcuu1=\EOA, kent=\EOM, kf0=\EOy,
        kf1=\EOP, kf10=\EOx, kf2=\EOQ, kf3=\EOR, kf4=\EOS, kf5=\EOt,
        kf6=\EOu, kf7=\EOv, kf8=\EOl, kf9=\EOw, lf1=pf1, lf2=pf2,
        lf3=pf3, lf4=pf4, mc0=\E[0i, mc4=\E[4i, mc5=\E[5i, rc=\E8,
        rev=\E[7m$<2>, ri=\EM$<5>, rmacs=^O, rmam=\E[?7l,
        rmkx=\E[?1l\E>, rmso=\E[m$<2>, rmul=\E[m$<2>,
        rs2=\E>\E[?3l\E[?4l\E[?5l\E[?7h\E[?8h, sc=\E7,
        sgr=\E[0%?%p1%p6%|%t;1%;%?%p2%t;4%;%?%p1%p3%|%t;7%;%?%p4%t;5%;m%?%p9%t\016%e\017%;$<2>,
        sgr0=\E[m\017$<2>, smacs=^N, smam=\E[?7h, smkx=\E[?1h\E=,
        smso=\E[7m$<2>, smul=\E[4m$<2>, tbc=\E[3g,

The corresponding termcap is

> infocmp -Cr vt100
#       Reconstructed via infocmp from file: /usr/local/ncurses/share/terminfo/v/vt100
vt100|vt100-am|dec vt100 (w/advanced video):\
        :5i:am:bs:ms:xn:xo:\
        :co#80:it#8:li#24:vt#3:\
        :@8=\EOM:DO=\E[%dB:K1=\EOq:K2=\EOr:K3=\EOs:K4=\EOp:K5=\EOn:\
        :LE=\E[%dD:RA=\E[?7l:RI=\E[%dC:SA=\E[?7h:UP=\E[%dA:\
        :ac=``aaffggjjkkllmmnnooppqqrrssttuuvvwwxxyyzz{{||}}~~:\
        :ae=^O:as=^N:bl=^G:cb=\E[1K:cd=\E[J:ce=\E[K:cl=\E[H\E[J:\
        :cm=\E[%i%d;%dH:cr=^M:cs=\E[%i%d;%dr:ct=\E[3g:do=^J:\
        :eA=\E(B\E)0:ho=\E[H:k0=\EOy:k1=\EOP:k2=\EOQ:k3=\EOR:\
        :k4=\EOS:k5=\EOt:k6=\EOu:k7=\EOv:k8=\EOl:k9=\EOw:k;=\EOx:\
        :kb=^H:kd=\EOB:ke=\E[?1l\E>:kl=\EOD:kr=\EOC:ks=\E[?1h\E=:\
        :ku=\EOA:l1=pf1:l2=pf2:l3=pf3:l4=pf4:le=^H:mb=\E[5m:\
        :md=\E[1m:me=\E[0m:mr=\E[7m:nd=\E[C:pf=\E[4i:po=\E[5i:\
        :ps=\E[0i:rc=\E8:rs=\E>\E[?3l\E[?4l\E[?5l\E[?7h\E[?8h:\
        :..sa=\E[0%?%p1%p6%|%t;1%;%?%p2%t;4%;%?%p1%p3%|%t;7%;%?%p4%t;5%;m%?%p9%t\016%e\017%;$<2>:\
        :sc=\E7:se=\E[m:sf=^J:so=\E[7m:sr=\EM:st=\EH:ta=^I:ue=\E[m:\
        :up=\E[A:us=\E[4m:

(The termcap name for blink is mb, which you can see in the description).

So... if you are not seeing blinking text, that could be (a) the terminal itself or (b) the terminal description.

Further reading:

• infocmp - compare or print out terminfo descriptions
• terminfo - terminal capability data base
• Standard ECMA-48: Control Functions for Coded Character Sets

Answer 2

printf '\033[5mHello\033[0m\n' produces:

Blinking text in

• cool-retro-term 1.1.1
• elementary-terminal 5.3.4
• gnome-terminal 3.32.1
• konsole5 18.12.3
• mate-terminal 1.22.1
• nemo-terminal 4.0.0
• qterminal 0.14.0
• rxvt-unicode 9.22
• st 0.8.1
• terminator 1.91
• xfce4-terminal 0.8.7.4
• xterm 344
• yakuake 3.0.5
• on macOS: Terminal, and also iTerm2 if activated in Profile > Text > Text Rendering.

Highlight through a background color in

• FreeBSD 12 console
• Eterm
• on Windows: mintty (used by Cygwin), PuTTY

Highlight through a foreground color in

• emacs-terminal 5.3.4
• on Windows: TeraTerm

Reverse video in

• mrxvt

No effect in

• Linux console
• Solaris 11.4 console
• guake 0.8.8
• lilyterm 0.9.9.2
• lterm 1.5.1
• lxterminal 0.3.2
• roxterm 3.7.3
• termit 2.9.6
• on macOS: iTerm2 (unless explicitly activated)

Answer 3

Blink code doesn't work on VTE terminal such as gnome-terminal, tilda, guake, terminator, xfce4-terminal and so on.

You have to try with xterm .

Answer 4

Sometimes the settings are buried deep in the settings in your terminal emulator.

In ITerm2:

• Preferences (⌘,)
• Profiles
• dark (-> my current profile)
• Text
• Text Rendering
• ☑ Blinking text allowed

Answer 5

I was looking for this from long time. I am using red hat Linux. After many expriments it is observed that echo -e "\e[5m Hello world \e[0m" will not blink on graphic mode I.e. Ctrl+alt+F7. It will work in command line mode from ctrl+alt+F1 to ctrl+alt+F6 only.