How to Disable Colored Output in holehe: CLI and Programmatic Methods

Add the --no-color flag when running holehe from the command line, or set args.nocolor = True when using the library programmatically to disable all ANSI color output.

The open-source OSINT tool holehe (maintained by megadose/holehe) uses ANSI color codes to highlight results in terminal output. When you need to disable colored output in holehe for logging, piping to other tools, or accessibility reasons, the tool provides both command-line and programmatic options to strip all colorization.

How holehe Implements Color Output

holehe leverages the termcolor library to generate ANSI color codes for terminal output. The core logic resides in the print_color function within holehe/core.py, which checks the args.nocolor attribute before applying any formatting.

According to the source code in megadose/holehe, when args.nocolor is set to True, the function returns the raw text string without invoking termcolor.colored, effectively bypassing all colorization at lines 108-109 in holehe/core.py.

Disabling Colors via Command Line

The simplest method to disable colored output is using the built-in command-line flag. The argument parser in holehe/core.py defines --no-color as a boolean flag that stores True to the args.nocolor destination (line 186).

holehe -u example@domain.com --no-color

When this flag is present, every call to print_color returns plain text instead of colorized strings, making the output suitable for redirection to files or processing by other Unix tools like grep or awk.

Disabling Colors Programmatically

When integrating holehe into Python scripts, you must configure the args namespace passed to internal functions. Create an args object with nocolor set to True to ensure all output returns as plain text without ANSI escape sequences.

from holehe.core import print_color

# Configure args to disable color output

class Args:
    nocolor = True

args = Args()

# Returns "Sample text" without green ANSI codes

result = print_color("Sample text", "green", args)
print(result)  # Output: Sample text (plain)

This approach is essential when capturing holehe output programmatically or displaying results in environments that do not support ANSI color codes.

Technical Implementation Details

The color toggle mechanism relies on a conditional check inside the print_color function:

• When args.nocolor == False: Returns termcolor.colored(text, color) with full ANSI color codes
• When args.nocolor == True: Returns the raw text string unchanged

The CLI argument registration at line 186 of holehe/core.py defines the interface:

parser.add_argument("--no-color", action="store_true", dest="nocolor", help="Don't color terminal output")

The setup.py file in the repository declares termcolor and colorama as dependencies, ensuring cross-platform color support. Disabling colors via the nocolor attribute bypasses these libraries entirely while preserving all functional OSINT capabilities.

Summary

• Use the --no-color flag when running holehe from the terminal to disable all ANSI colors
• Set args.nocolor = True in your Python code when using holehe as an imported library
• The print_color function in holehe/core.py handles the conditional logic at lines 108-109
• Disabling colors removes terminal formatting but does not affect API requests or data processing results

Frequently Asked Questions

What library does holehe use for colored terminal output?

holehe uses the termcolor library to generate ANSI color codes, with colorama listed as a dependency in setup.py to ensure cross-platform color support on Windows systems.

Can I permanently disable colors without typing the flag every time?

holehe does not currently support environment variables or configuration files for default settings. To permanently disable colors, create a shell alias such as alias holehe='holehe --no-color' in your .bashrc or .zshrc configuration file.

Does disabling colored output affect functionality or performance?

No. Disabling colors only affects the visual presentation layer handled by print_color in holehe/core.py. All OSINT functionality, API requests, rate limiting, and data processing remain identical; only the terminal output lacks ANSI escape sequences.

Where exactly is the color logic implemented in the holehe source code?

The color toggle logic resides in the print_color function at lines 108-109 of holehe/core.py, while the command-line argument parser defines the --no-color flag at line 186 of the same file according to the megadose/holehe repository source code.

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