ANSI colored output: How to determine how python was called?

[Michael Hudson]

Pearu Peterson <pearu at cens.ioc.ee> writes:

> Hi,
> 
> In my python program I want to output ANSI colored text only if the
> terminal where the program was executed can support ANSI colored text. In
> all other cases the program should output ordinary text.
> 
> My initial approach was to check the TERM environment variable, for
> example,
> 
> if os.environ.get('TERM',None) in ['rxvt','xterm']:
>     print '\x1b[31mHello!\x1b[0m' # red Hello!
> else:
>     print 'Hello!'
> 
> But then I found that when this program is called through
> 
>     commands.getstatusoutput(..)
> 
> and its friends, then the above test fails in the sense that red `Hello!'
> is printed but I would like to have here an ordinary `Hello!'.
> 
> So, my question is: 
> 
>   Are there alternative (hopefully better) ways to decide whether the
>   output "device" of python stdout supports ANSI colored text or not?

Chuck an os.isatty(0) in there?

Cheers,
M.

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