(?i)\b(up|active|permit|allow|allowed|success|successful|online|established|trunking)\b Suggested Style: Bright Green Bold text. 3. IPv4 and IPv6 Addresses
Once your rules are configured, you must assign them to your active terminal sessions. How to Activate the Set
With your new set selected, click the button to start defining keywords. This is where you create the visual alerts.
2. Configuration Warnings and Destructive Actions (Bold Red / Orange) xshell highlight sets cisco
: Right-click your existing Cisco session and select Properties . Terminal Appearance : Navigate to Terminal > Appearance .
For network engineers, spending hours staring at a black-and-white terminal while debugging a BGP flapping or tracing a faulty OSPF adjacency is not only tedious but inefficient. Color coding is not just about aesthetics; it is about cognitive load reduction. When configured correctly, color highlights can help you spot errors, identify IP addresses, and parse configuration changes in a split second.
If 50% of your screen is colored, nothing stands out. Reserve highlights for actionable, critical statuses. How to Activate the Set With your new
Open Xshell and navigate to . Click New and name the set (e.g., "Cisco_IOS"). Ensure the new set is selected in the list. Step 2: Add Cisco-Specific Keywords
Right-click your Cisco device session (or the root folder containing all your Cisco sessions) and select . In the Properties window, click on the Appearance category. Locate the Highlight Set drop-down menu. Select your custom Cisco_IOS set. Click OK to save and apply the changes. Advanced Pro-Tips for Cisco Power Users
Plain text matching works well for simple words like up or down , but Cisco syslog entries contain dynamic variables. Utilizing regular expressions maximizes the utility of your Xshell highlights. Configuration Warnings and Destructive Actions (Bold Red /
| | Regex Pattern | What It Matches | | :--- | :--- | :--- | | Red, Bold, Underline | %.*-[0-4]-.*DOWN | Critical errors (Severity 0–4) with "DOWN" | | Yellow, Bold | %.*-5-.* | Notifications (Severity 5) | | Green, Italic | %.*-6-.* | Informational messages (Severity 6) |
Xshell allows you to create global highlight sets that apply automatically when specific terminal sessions open. Follow these steps to build a dedicated Cisco schema: Step 1: Open the Highlight Sets Manager Launch . Navigate to the top menu and select Tools > Highlight Sets .
Highlight sets in XShell are a powerful feature that allows users to customize the appearance of their terminal sessions. With highlight sets, users can define specific keywords, phrases, or regular expressions to highlight in different colors, making it easier to quickly identify important information in their terminal output. This feature is particularly useful for network administrators who need to quickly scan through large amounts of output to identify specific issues or configuration settings.
In Xshell, go to the menu and select Terminal Highlight Sets (or simply "Highlight Sets" in older versions). This opens the Highlight Sets dialog box where you can create, import, and manage your highlight configurations.
Spend 15 minutes today migrating from the default black-and-white terminal. Import the XML set above, adjust the colors for your lighting conditions (dark mode users prefer brighter purples and oranges), and restart your Xshell session. You will never go back to plain text again.