UNIX for Dummies Questions & Answers

hi @all

question from an absolute beginner:

I want directory listings to be displayed with different colors...

what do I have to do and where can I find the settings?

thx

Hi,



if you're using the bash shell you could create an alias for the "ls" command using the color option to differentiate file types.



i.e. in your ~/.bash_profile file add



alias ls='ls --color="always"'

On my system the colours for different file types are a follows:



executable files green

archive files (.gz,.zip,etc,) red

ascii files white

jpgs,bmp files magenta

symbolic links cyan

directories blue



I'm not sure if you can change the colours for different file types.





Andy Hibbins

I've made the changes and it works fine...

but how can I define the colors for dirs, ascii files etc.

thanks again
thomas

To alter the colours for different file type you need to edit the dircolors config file.



On my system this is installed under /etc/DIR_COLORS



you may also need to add the following to /etc/profile or ~/.bash_profile file



eval `dircolors -sh /etc/DIR_COLORS`


I don't need to add this to my /etc/profile ~/.bash_profile because it get's executed vi a script called color_ls.sh in the /etc/profile.d directory.




Andy Hibbins

One more thing you can do is copy the /etc/DIR_COLORS file to your home directory as .dir_colors file and then edit it. The /etc/DIR_COLORS file have all the necessary information as well as the color codes to display your files or directories in diferrent color codes.
Hope This works