ColorMake

A fast, lightweight tool to colorize make output for better readability.

Installation

Using Cargo Install

cargo install colormake

Manual Installation

cargo build --release
install -m 755 target/release/colormake /usr/local/bin/

Or using the Makefile:

make build
make install

Uninstallation

Using Cargo Uninstall

cargo uninstall colormake

Manual Uninstallation

rm /usr/local/bin/colormake

Or using the Makefile:

make uninstall

Usage

As a Make Wrapper (Recommended)

Use colormake as a drop-in replacement for make:

# Basic usage - runs 'make' with colored output
colormake

# Pass arguments to make
colormake clean
colormake install
colormake -j4

# Use a different make command
colormake --make-cmd gmake

# Custom make arguments
colormake -- -j8 CFLAGS="-O2"

As a Pipe Filter

Pipe make output through colormake:

make 2>&1 | colormake
make -j4 | colormake

Options

• --help: Show help message
• --version: Show version information
• --no-color: Disable color output (overrides automatic terminal detection)
• --cols N: Set output width (columns). Long lines are truncated with " .. " separator
• --lines N: Number of lines to display (reserved for future use)
• --show-config: Display color scheme configuration
• --make-cmd CMD: Specify make command to execute (default: "make")
• Trailing arguments: Passed directly to make command

Automatic Features

• Terminal Detection: Colors are automatically enabled when output is to a terminal (TTY) and TERM is not "dumb" or "unknown"
• stdout/stderr Merging: Both standard output and error streams are merged and colorized together
• Whitespace Normalization: Multiple spaces are collapsed to single spaces for cleaner output

Examples

# Standard build with colors
colormake

# Parallel build
colormake -j8

# Build with custom flags
colormake -- CFLAGS="-g -O2"

# Disable colors
colormake --no-color

# Show color scheme
colormake --show-config

# Use with gmake
colormake --make-cmd gmake

Features

• Fast: Uses regex-lite and buffered I/O for performance
• Type-safe: Uses enums instead of string matching
• Error handling: Proper error propagation
• Zero dependencies: Only uses regex-lite and clap
• Multi-compiler Support: Recognizes gcc, g++, clang, rustc, cargo, CC, CXX, and libtool prefixes
• Smart Line Truncation: Long lines are intelligently truncated with prefix and suffix preservation
• Automatic Terminal Detection: Enables colors only when appropriate

Color Scheme

• Make commands: Cyan
• Compiler commands: Magenta (bright) - supports gcc, g++, clang, rustc, cargo, CC, CXX, and libtool
• Filenames: Yellow
• Line numbers: Cyan
• Errors: Yellow (bright) with highlighting
• Warnings: Green
• Notes: Yellow

Development

The project includes a Makefile for common development tasks:

# Run tests
make test

# Build release binary (runs tests first)
make build

# Install to /usr/local/bin (requires sudo)
make install

# Uninstall from /usr/local/bin (requires sudo)
make uninstall

# Clean build artifacts
make clean

Acknowledgments

This initiative expands on the efforts of:

• colormake
• make

License

This project is licensed under the GPL-3.0 license. See the LICENSE file for details.