mint is a single C++11 header to format terminal text using a simple tag-based markup syntax.

mint.hpp offers the mint::mint() function which transforms a string containing terminal attribute tags into another string containing actual terminal SGR codes.

mint::mint() automatically detects terminal support. If the standard output isn't connected to a compatible terminal, it removes the attribute tags instead of converting them to SGR codes.

mint tags allow you to specify text attributes like colors, bold, underline, and italic formatting.

The mint markup syntax is straightforward and composable.

An opening tag is, between [ and ], an unordered sequence of specifiers (all optional, but at least one):

COLOR is one of:

• ANSI 16-color palette:

  Code	Color
  d	Default
  k	Black
  r	Red
  g	Green
  y	Yellow
  b	Blue
  m	Magenta
  c	Cyan
  w	White

• True color:

  # followed with six hex digits (like a CSS color).

  Note that you can set two foreground or background colors within a single opening tag, for example:

  A [r#e74c3c]wonderful [!:m:#9b59b6]day[//]!
  

  If you're calling mint::mint() in auto mode and mint::terminalSupport() reports only ANSI 16-color palette support, then this function will ignore the true color specifiers and only keep the basic ones.

Spaces are allowed between specifiers within an opening tag.

A closing tag contains one or more / characters between [ and ]. Each / closes one level.

Escape [ with \[ and \ with \\. Use mint::escape() to escape text for mint::mint(). Use mint::escapeAnsi() to return to a plain string (no SGR codes) from the result of mint::mint().

Opening and closing tags may be nested (maximum four levels of depth) and must be balanced. Note that nesting is additive: a nested tag cannot cancel an active attribute.

Because you must balance opening and closing tags, mint is more suited to {fmt} and printf() than I/O streams:

Using mint with {fmt}:

fmt::print(mint::mint("[w:r] [!]ERROR[/]: At offset [!*b]{:#x}[/]: {} [/]"),
           exc.offset(), exc.what());

Include the mint.hpp header in your C++ code:

#include "mint.hpp"

See the documentation of mint::mint(), mint::escape(), mint::escapeAnsi(), and mint::terminalSupport() in the header file itself.

This project suggests that you wrap mint::mint() into your own function which at least checks the NO_COLOR environment variable once to set the when parameter of mint::mint() (mint::When::Auto or mint::When::Never).

To test mint:

1. Build the testers:

   $ mkdir -p build && cd build && cmake .. && make
   

2. Test with pytest, providing the build directory:

   $ MINT_BUILD_DIR=$PWD pytest ../tests
   

To report a bug, create a GitHub issue.