ANSI support in console

Steps to Reproduce

• I’m using this package https://pub.dev/packages/ansicolor

• And print with this function

 String _colorMessage(LogLevel logLevel, String message) {
    AnsiPen pen;
    switch (logLevel) {
      case LogLevel.error:
        pen = AnsiPen()..red();
        break;
      case LogLevel.warning:
        pen = AnsiPen()..yellow();
        break;
      case LogLevel.debug:
        pen = AnsiPen()..white();
        break;
      case LogLevel.trace:
        pen = AnsiPen()..gray(level: 0.5);
        break;
    }

    return pen(message);
  }

• “Run” tool window

• flutter logs

Version info

[✓] Flutter (Channel stable, v1.17.5, on Mac OS X 10.15.6 19G73, locale ru-RU) • Flutter version 1.17.5 at /Users/vmeretin/dev/flutter • Framework revision 8af6b2f038 (5 weeks ago), 2020-06-30 12:53:55 -0700 • Engine revision ee76268252 • Dart version 2.8.4

[✓] Android toolchain - develop for Android devices (Android SDK version 30.0.1) • Android SDK at /Users/vmeretin/dev/android-sdk/ • Platform android-29, build-tools 30.0.1 • ANDROID_HOME = /Users/vmeretin/dev/android-sdk/ • ANDROID_SDK_ROOT = /Users/vmeretin/dev/android-sdk/ • Java binary at: /Applications/Android Studio.app/Contents/jre/jdk/Contents/Home/bin/java • Java version OpenJDK Runtime Environment (build 1.8.0_242-release-1644-b3-6222593) • All Android licenses accepted.

[✓] Xcode - develop for iOS and macOS (Xcode 11.6) • Xcode at /Applications/Xcode.app/Contents/Developer • Xcode 11.6, Build version 11E708 • CocoaPods version 1.9.3

[!] Android Studio (version 4.0) • Android Studio at /Applications/Android Studio.app/Contents ✗ Flutter plugin not installed; this adds Flutter specific functionality. ✗ Dart plugin not installed; this adds Dart specific functionality. • Java version OpenJDK Runtime Environment (build 1.8.0_242-release-1644-b3-6222593)

[!] IntelliJ IDEA Ultimate Edition (version 2020.2) • IntelliJ at /Applications/IntelliJ IDEA.app ✗ Flutter plugin not installed; this adds Flutter specific functionality. ✗ Dart plugin not installed; this adds Dart specific functionality. • For information about installing plugins, see https://flutter.dev/intellij-setup/#installing-the-plugins

[✓] Connected device (1 available) • iPhone SE (2nd generation) • 2207B74B-0056-43BB-A0AD-6B97703D8176 • ios • com.apple.CoreSimulator.SimRuntime.iOS-13-6 (simulator)

[neoRiley]

Hey I appreciate everyone’s help and patience, thanks very much for that. In the end, I’m guessing being on Mac is the issue, so I went after Grep Console and that’s actually working decently well.

To anyone else coming across this on a Mac - I’m using IntelliJ IDEA Ultimate 2020.3, but I assume this works with Android Studio as well:

1. Install Grep Console Plugin
2. In the output console, right click and choose “Grep” - this will bring up a tab that has an “Expression” field, type “flutter:” in there and hit “Apply”. You’ll now see all of the flutter console logging in this new tab.
3. Add colors to possible string values in the Grep Console Settings. I added a ton that I use for logging in Unity.
4. Then, to see the color, just append the string value to your print() call: print("My test message [ORANGE]");

It’s the entire line and I you have to live with “[colorName]” at the end of your statements, but it does work.

[devoncarew]

From looking at this, it will require changes to the Flutter plugin (minor changes, as outlined by @alexander-doroshko above), as well as changes to the flutter command line tool. Somewhere in the pipeline it looks like we’re escaping the escape char (into \^?), so the ansi handling in the ColoredProcessHandler class doesn’t have the right info to act on.

As part of fixing the escaping issue, we can probably also do something about the leading flutter: text on print output from flutter apps.