Like /bin/echo but ANSI-escapes the output
# $Header: /CVSROOT/printansi/DESCRIPTION,v 1.2 2009-08-27 18:28:27 tino Exp $
#
# $Log: DESCRIPTION,v $
# Revision 1.2  2009-08-27 18:28:27  tino
# Warning added
#
# Revision 1.1  2009-07-31 22:26:28  tino
# First version

Printansi echos the arguments to stdout (or a file) ANSI-escaped.
The arguments are separated by spaces and ends the line with LF.

This way you can preserve the arguments between shell sessions,
by reading them in again.  Example:
<pre>
a='arg with
newline'
b="arg with shell '"'" shell'
printansi "$a" "$b" > /tmp/preserve.file.$$
read -r c d < /tmp/preserve.file.$$
eval c="\$'$c'"
eval d="\$'$d'"
if [ ".$a" = ".$c" ] || [ ".$b" != ".$d" ]; then echo "fail"; fi
</pre>
Please note that the "read" and "eval" completely runs in the
shell without any forks, so it's quick.

If you invoke it with -f it automatically creates and locks the
file.

Options -l when combined with option -f are a quick version
of following line:
<pre>while read -r a; do printansi -f "file" "$a"; done</pre>
Option -z is the same with NUL as line terminator.

I want to stress, that you must use <b>read -r</b>.  If you
forget the option <tt>-r</tt> you will see strange effects.