Launch a terminal with random text color every time

We can set the color of the prompt using the print statement as given in the following link.

Using this info, we can create a script that will set the prompt to a random color every time we open or launch the console or terminal.

color=$((($RANDOM) % 7 + 30)) printf "\e[$((color))m"

The variable $RANDOM will generate random numbers and "%" will ensure that the number will remain below 7, ensuring that the variable color will have only numbers between 30 and 37, which are the numbers of the console colors.

To make this piece of code run every time we open the terminal or console, we can add it to the file .bashrc of the user. So open the .bashrc and enter these two lines at the last and save it.

Remember, do not edit any thing in .bashrc unless you are not sure of what you are doing as it might make launching console difficult if you do wrong changes.

Create animated 2017 on the linux terminal

In the post " " we created 2017 on the terminal. Here is a small extention to the same, to make it appear on character at a time giving it the effect of an animation.

#!/bin/bash #create 2017 on terminal using any user specified character str_dwn() { rows=$1 s_start=$2 char=$4 str_st_row=$3 rows_end=$((str_st_row+rows)) for((i=str_st_row;i<rows_end;i++)) do tput cup $i $s_start printf "$char " done echo"" } backslash() { b_st_row=$1 b_st_cols=$2 b_char=$3 b_r_end=$((b_st_row + 5 )) for((p=b_st_row;p<b_r_end;p++)) do tput setaf $4 tput cup $p $b_st_cols printf "$b_char " ((b_st_cols++)) done echo"" } forward() { f_st_row=$1 f_st_cols=$2 f_len=$3 f_char=$4 f_r_end=$((f_st_row + $f_len)) for((i=f_st_row;i<f_r_end;i++)) do tput cup $i $f_st_cols printf "$f_char " ((f_st_cols--)) done echo"" } horizontal() { hrow=$2 hstart=$1 hcols=$3 char=$4 end=$((hstart + hcols)) for((i=hstart;i<=end;i++)) do tput cup $hrow $i printf "$char" done echo"" } gen_rand() { num1=$1 if [ $num1 -eq 0 ] then temp=$(($RANDOM % 2)) rand=$((temp + 2)) else temp=$(($RANDOM % 5)) rand=$((temp + num1)) fi } two() { hstart_2=$1 hrow_be=$2 hcols_2=$3 char=$4 color=$5 set_color horizontal $hstart_2 $hrow_be $hcols_2 "$char" st_row_2=$((hrow_be+1)) f_st_cols_2=$((hstart_2+hcols_2)) forward $st_row_2 $f_st_cols_2 5 "$char" $color hstart_2_lo=$start hrow_2_lo=$((hrow_be+6)) hcols_2_lo=5 horizontal $hstart_2_lo $hrow_2_lo $hcols_2_lo "$char" } zero() { set_color hstart_0=$((f_st_cols_2 +4)) hcols_0=5 horizontal $hstart_0 $hrow_be $hcols_0 "$char" str_dwn_col_0=$hstart_0 str_dwn_row_0=$((hrow_be + 1)) str_dwn 6 $str_dwn_col_0 $str_dwn_row_0 "$char" hstart_0_lo=$((f_st_cols_2 +4)) hcols_0_lo=6 hrow_0_lo=$((hrow_be+6)) horizontal $hstart_0 $hrow_0_lo $hcols_0 "$char" str_dwn_col_rig_0=$((hstart_0 +5)) str_dwn_row_rig_0=$((hrow_be + 1)) str_dwn 6 $str_dwn_col_rig_0 $str_dwn_row_rig_0 "$char" } one() { set_color str_dwn_col_1=$((str_dwn_col_rig_0 + 4)) str_dwn_row_1=$((hrow_be)) str_dwn 7 $str_dwn_col_1 $str_dwn_row_1 "$char" } seven() { set_color hstart_7_top=$((str_dwn_col_1 +4)) hcols_7_top=4 hrow_7_top=$((hrow_be)) horizontal $hstart_7_top $hrow_7_top $hcols_7_top "$char" hstart_7_mid=$((str_dwn_col_1+8)) hcols_7_mid=4 hrow_7_mid=$((hrow_be)) forward $hrow_7_mid $hstart_7_mid 7 "$char" $color } set_color(){ color=$RANDOM color=$((color%6)) tput setaf $color } cols=`tput cols` mid=$((cols/2)) start=$((mid-16)) echo "What character do you want to use" read char tput clear rows=5 begin_row=2 num_cols=6 two $start $begin_row $num_cols "$char" $color; sleep 2 zero sleep 2 one sleep 2 seven sleep 2 ; tput setaf 0 tput cup 9 0

Save the script as animated_2017.sh and run it in the terminal bash animated_2017.sh

You should see 2017 appear one character at a time on the terminal.