Q: Disable colour output from /etc/init.d scripts? On RedHat/CentOS systems, all of the service management scripts in /etc/init.d (and also run by the "service" command) produce color output.  (i.e. the "[  OK  ]" and "[FAILED]" strings.)  How do I disable this?  (The color-producing escape sequences are making the webistrano output more ugly than it needs to be.)

A: Check out /etc/sysconfig/init.  The top lines on my CentOS 5.x system:
# color => new RH6.0 bootup
# verbose => old-style bootup
# anything else => new style bootup without ANSI colors or positioning
BOOTUP=color

Changing the BOOTUP line to something like nocolor eliminates the formatting for all init scripts.
If you just want to disable formatting on one of your scripts, add:
BOOTUP=nocolor

after the line that reads:
/etc/init.d/functions

