

Gem install lolcat - moe
https://github.com/busyloop/lolcat

======
walrus
Entertaining. Maybe hide the stack traces and just show the error messages:

    
    
        $ cat nonexistent
        cat: nonexistent: No such file or directory
    
        $ lolcat nonexistent
        /usr/lib/ruby/gems/1.9.1/gems/lolcat-42.0.21/lib/lolcat/cat.rb:57:in `initialize': No such file or directory - nonexistent (Errno::ENOENT)
        	from /usr/lib/ruby/gems/1.9.1/gems/lolcat-42.0.21/lib/lolcat/cat.rb:57:in `open'
        	from /usr/lib/ruby/gems/1.9.1/gems/lolcat-42.0.21/lib/lolcat/cat.rb:57:in `block in cat!'
        	from /usr/lib/ruby/gems/1.9.1/gems/lolcat-42.0.21/lib/lolcat/cat.rb:55:in `each'
        	from /usr/lib/ruby/gems/1.9.1/gems/lolcat-42.0.21/lib/lolcat/cat.rb:55:in `cat!'
        	from /usr/lib/ruby/gems/1.9.1/gems/lolcat-42.0.21/bin/lolcat:24:in `<top (required)>'
        	from /usr/bin/lolcat:19:in `load'
        	from /usr/bin/lolcat:19:in `<main>'
    

Also:

    
    
        $ echo 'text' > tmp && stat -c %s tmp
        5
        $ echo 'text' | grep --color text > tmp && stat -c %s tmp
        5
        $ echo 'text' | lolcat > tmp && stat -c %s tmp
        80
    

grep seems to know when the output is going to a file rather than the terminal
(I honestly have no clue how) and omits the color control sequences. lolcat
does not, which prevents it from being used instead of cat in some cases.

------
thinkt4nk
It works best with apache access logs!

------
romac
$ cat /dev/urandom | base64 -b 80 | lolcat

