I have made a small enhancement (in my option) to etc-update. See link for more info and patch.
post all info/patches into the bug report and re-open please
Created attachment 80510 [details, diff] My patch This is a small patch to enable colors in etc-update for more easy reading, i have used this for a while and like it and i hope more people will have use of it. Here is a link to a image thats shows my patch in use http://junkpile.mine.nu/~s/public/etc-update.png
> post all info/patches into the bug report and re-open please done
no real point in making it a configure option ... might be better to try and scrape the color codes out of portage (output.py defines a bunch)
The eselect package has output.bash which is similar to portage's output.py but it organizes colors by meaning instead of by appearance. For example, instead of using red for all warning messages, it defines COLOUR_WARN which happens to be red, but could be mapped to some other color. What I'd really like to see is a color mapping service (a simple command line program that queries a color mapping database) that all console apps can share regardless of the language they are implemented in (bash, python, or whatever). This way you could define the colors that you'd like to use for various meanings. Then console apps use the service to lookup the appropriate color when they need to convey a meaning. If we decide to go this route then this bug can be absorbed into bug 63517 since portage's bash and python parts will be able to share the same color mapping service.
Unsure about this, it attaches a good/bad feeling to the options that isn't really true.
I really liked the bold/non-bold part of your patch, but I made etc-update only show the real config file ages ago which kind of deprecated this part. For the color part I agree with Marius that it attaches a good/bad feeling which isn't true. That being said IF we were to add colors, all of the options should get colors to somehow categorize them, not just the first two.
