AnsiVtConsole.NetCore 1.0.18

AnsiVtConsole.NetCore

AnsiVtConsole.NetCore library provides ANSI VT support (cursor,colors,screen size) for multi-plateform (windows, linux, osx, arm) console applications using C# and .NET Core 6

This project is licensed under the terms of the MIT license: LICENSE.md

Features

The library provides functionalities needed to build console applications running in a terminal (WSL/WSL2, cmd.exe, ConEmu, bash, ...) with text interface. That includes:

• a text printer engine that supports print directives (markup) allowing to manage console functionalities from text itself, as html would do but with a simplest grammar (that can be configured). That makes possible colored outputs, cursor control, text scrolling and also dynamic C# execution (scripting), based on System.Console and ANSI VT100 / VT52 (VT100 type Fp or 3Fp, Fs, CSI, SGR)

• A ANSI Parser that can identify/remove escape sequences in a text

• The console output can be controlled by:

  • tokens in a string (print directives)
  • as string shortcuts (dynamic ansi vt strings)
  • throught API methods

Usage

download the nuget from command line or add it from Visual Studio

@rem version 1.0.18 or any new one
dotnet add package AnsiVtConsole.NetCore --version 1.0.18

Note

When installing the package, the following files are copied into your project:

• LICENSE.md
• README.md
• Component/Parser/ANSI/ansi-seq-patterns.txt
• assets/example1.png
• assets/example2.png
• assets/example3.png
• assets/example4.png
• assets/example5.png
• assets/example6.png
• assets/output.png
• assets/ascii-icon.png

you can delete these files EXCEPT ansi-seq-patterns.txt (ANSI grammar) that is required for the ANSI parser to work

these files are set as Content and are copied to output folder on build

using cons=AnsiVtConsole.NetCore;
// get the ansi vt console
var console = new cons.AnsiVTConsole();

1. using the markup :

console.Write("(br,f=yellow,b=red)yellow text on red background(br)(f=cyan)current time is: (exec=System.DateTime.Now,br)");

2. using the string shortcuts :

using static AnsiVtConsole.NetCore.Component.EchoDirective;

System.Console.Out.Writeline($"{Br}{Yellow}{BRed}yellow text on red background{Br}{Cyan}current time is: {System.DateTime.Now}{Br}");

both outputs:

Print directives (markup):

text can contains echo directives that changes the echo behavior. the echo directive syntax is formed according to this pattern: (printDirective) or (printDirective=printDirectiveValue)

• multiple echo directives can be separated by a , that can be grouped in a single text in parentheses: (echoDirective1,echoDirective2=..,echoDirective3)
• an echo directive value can be written inside a 'code' text block, depending on each echo directive, with the syntax: [[...]]
• symbols of this grammar can be configured throught the class: AnsiVtConsole.NetCore.Component.Settings
• alternatively to the print directives you can use the strings shortcuts from the class: AnsiVtConsole.NetCore.Component.EchoDirective

Available echo directives are defined in the class ``

1. Colorization with SGR (Select Graphic Rendition)

f=ConsoleColor      : set foreground color
f8=Int32            : set foreground 8bit color index, where 0 <= index <= 255
f24=Int32:Int32:Int32 : set foreground 24bit color red:green:blue, where 0 <= red,green,blue <= 255
f=ConsoleColor      : set foreground color
b=ConsoleColor      : set background color
b8=Int32            : set background 8bit color index, where 0 <= index <= 255
b24=Int32:Int32:Int32 : set background 24bit color red:green:blue, where 0 <= red,green,blue <= 255
df=ConsoleColor     : set default foreground
db=ConsoleColor     : set default background
bkf                 : backup foreground color
bkb                 : backup background color
rsf                 : restore foreground color
rsb                 : restore background color
rdc                 : restore default colors```

ConsoleColor := darkblue|darkgreen|darkcyan|darkred|darkmagenta|darkyellow|gray|darkgray|blue|green|cyan|red|magenta|yellow|white (not case sensitive)

2. Text decoration (vt100) with SGR (Select Graphic Rendition)

uon                 : underline on
invon               : inverted colors on
tdoff               : text decoration off and reset default colors
lion                : ligtht colors
bon                 : bold on
blon                : blink on

3. CSI (Control Sequence Introducer)

cls                 : clear screen
br                  : jump begin of next line (line break)
bkcr                : backup cursor position
rscr                : restore cursor position
crx=Int32           : set cursor x (0<=x<=WindowWidth)
cry=Int32           : set cursor y (0<=y<=WindowHeight)
crh                 : hide cursor
crs                 : show cursor
cleft               : move cursor left
cright              : move cursor right
cup                 : move cursor up
cdown               : move cursor down
cnleft=Int32        : move cursor n characters left
cnright=Int32       : move cursor n characters right
cnup=Int32          : move cursor n lines up
cndown=Int32        : move cursor n lines down
cl                  : clear line
clleft              : clear line from cursor left
clright             : clear line from cursor right
fillright           : fill line from cursor right
chome               : move cursor to upper left corner
tab                 : add a tab

4. Script engine

exec=CodeBlock|[[CodeBlock]] : executes and echo result of a C# code block

using static AnsiVtConsole.NetCore.Component.Parser.ANSI;
using cons=AnsiVtConsole.NetCore;
// get the ansi vt console
var console = new cons.AnsiVTConsole();

console.Out.WriteLine("current date is: (exec=System.DateTime.Now.Date)");

5. Application control

info                : output infos about the console
exit                : exit the current process

6. ANSI Sequences

ANSI sequences are defined in AnsiVtConsole.NetCore.Component.Console and can be used directly to build ANSI strings

using static AnsiVtConsole.NetCore.Component.Parser.ANSI;
using cons=AnsiVtConsole.NetCore;
// get the ansi vt console
var console = new cons.AnsiVTConsole();

var str = $"{SGR_Underline}{SGR_CrossedOut}my text{SGR_SetBackgroundColor24bits(15,152,123)}in color";
System.Console.WriteLine(str);

// is equivalent to:

cons.Out.WriteLine("(SGR_Underline,SGR_SlowBlink)my text(SGRB24=15:152:123)in color");

// or to:

cons.Out.WriteLine("(uon,blon)my text(f24=15:152:123)in color");

7. Unicode characters

Unicode characters are defined in the class AnsiVtConsole.NetCore.Component.Console.

using static AnsiVtConsole.NetCore.Component.Console.Unicode;
using cons=AnsiVtConsole.NetCore;
// get the ansi vt console
var console = new cons.AnsiVTConsole();

console.Out.WriteLine($"it's the (bkf,f=red){Demi}(rsf) or the (bkf,f=yellow){Quar}(rsf) of it");

console.Out.WriteLine("(f=cyan,EdgeTopLeft,BarHorizontal,EdgeTopRight)");
console.Out.WriteLine("(f=cyan,BarVertical,f=blue,Box,f=cyan,BarVertical)");
console.Out.WriteLine("(f=cyan,EdgeBottomLeft,BarHorizontal,EdgeBottomRight)");

Command line interface tool for your shells

The project AnsiVtConsole.NetCore.CommandLine build a command line tool that calls the AnsiVtConsole WriteLine method. With that you can add to you shell scripts the outputs provided by AnsiVtConsole:

out.exe "(br,f=yellow,b=red)yellow text on red background(br)(f=cyan)current time is: (exec=System.DateTime.Now,br)"

outputs:

out.exe "(br,f=yellow,b=red)yellow text on red background(br)(f=cyan)current time is: (exec=System.DateTime.Now,br)" --raw

outputs:

\e[4m\e[0m\e[0K\r\n\e[4m\e[0m\e[37m\e[93m\e[101myellow text on red background\e[4m\e[0m\e[0K\r\n\e[4m\e[0m\e[37m\e[96mcurrent time is: 13/06/2020 06:17:15\e[4m\e[0m\e[0K\r\n\e[4m\e[0m\e[37m

this tool accepts these arguments:

out.exe <text> [--raw [--esc-only] [--hexa] ] 

• if --err outputs to standard error stream instead of standard output stream
• if --raw, parse ANSI and non printable characters to show them by their names or representations
• if --raw these options are avalaibles :
  • --esc-only : disable only knowns non printable characters (from ASCII)
  • --hexa : use the hexa unix form for non printable characters

Note

the command line tool is built upon the library CommandLine.NetCore. For more information for this, please refers to:

• CommandLine.NetCore nuget
• CommandLine.NetCore GitHub repository

Examples

Colorization

To try these examples, compile and run the project AnsiVtConsole.NetCore.Examples:

AnsiVtConsole markup and Ansi/Vt parsing

Version history

1.0.18 - 01-1-2023

• add symbols and sources in package
• new editorconfig and code clean up
• command out for a shell available in AnsiVtConsole.NetCore.CommandLine.Out that compiles to out.exe
• doc update

1.0.17 - 01-10-2023

• add setting that make it possible to disable ansi/vt in console ouputs: AnsiVtConsole.NetCore.Component.Settings : IsMarkupDisabled,IsRawOutputEnabled,ReplaceNonPrintableCharactersByTheirName,RemoveANSISequences
• add methods to get output text in various formats (without ansi,with unparsed markup,in shell escaped characters) : GetText,GetRawText,ANSIParser.GetText
• add grammar file for ANSI parser
• enable buffering mode for any print directive
• update doc

1.0.16 - 01-05-2022

• fix nupkg. add deployment of documentation files
• update doc

1.0.14,1.0.15 - 12-17-2022

• fix LogError,LogWarning

1.0.13 - 12-17-2022

• fix refactoring Write,WriteLine
• add default empty string to log methods

1.0.12 - 12-17-2022

• rename Writeln methods by WriteLine
• suppress Log,Logln & logger refactoring
• add code documentation