DIR_COLORS(5)							 Linux User Manual						     DIR_COLORS(5)

NAME

       dir_colors - configuration file for dircolors(1)

DESCRIPTION

       The  program  ls(1) uses the environment variable LS_COLORS to determine the colors in which the filenames are to be displayed.	This envi-
       ronment variable is usually set by a command like

	      eval `dircolors some_path/dir_colors`

       found in a system default shell initialization file, like /etc/profile or /etc/csh.cshrc.  (See also dircolors(1).)  Usually, the file used
       here is /etc/DIR_COLORS and can be overridden by a .dir_colors file in one's home directory.

       This  configuration  file  consists of several statements, one per line.  Anything right of a hash mark (#) is treated as a comment, if the
       hash mark is at the beginning of a line or is preceded by at least one whitespace.  Blank lines are ignored.

       The global section of the file consists of any statement before the first TERM statement.  Any statement in the global section of the  file
       is  considered  valid  for  all terminal types.	Following the global section is one or more terminal-specific sections, preceded by one or
       more TERM statements which specify the terminal types (as given by the TERM environment variable) the following declarations apply to.	It
       is always possible to override a global declaration by a subsequent terminal-specific one.

       The following statements are recognized; case is insignificant:

       TERM terminal-type
	      Starts  a  terminal-specific  section  and specifies which terminal it applies to.  Multiple TERM statements can be used to create a
	      section which applies for several terminal types.

       COLOR yes|all|no|none|tty
	      (Slackware only; ignored by GNU dircolors(1).)  Specifies that colorization should always be enabled (yes or all), never enabled (no
	      or none), or enabled only if the output is a terminal (tty).  The default is no.

       EIGHTBIT yes|no
	      (Slackware only; ignored by GNU dircolors(1).)  Specifies that eight-bit ISO 8859 characters should be enabled by default.  For com-
	      patibility reasons, this can also be specified as 1 for yes or 0 for no.	The default is no.

       OPTIONS options
	      (Slackware only; ignored by GNU dircolors(1).)  Adds command-line options to the default ls command line.  The options  can  be  any
	      valid ls command-line options, and should include the leading minus sign.  Note that dircolors does not verify the validity of these
	      options.

       NORMAL color-sequence
	      Specifies the color used for normal (nonfilename) text.

       FILE color-sequence
	      Specifies the color used for a regular file.

       DIR color-sequence
	      Specifies the color used for directories.

       LINK color-sequence
	      Specifies the color used for a symbolic link.

       ORPHAN color-sequence
	      Specifies the color used for an orphaned symbolic link (one which points to a nonexistent file).	If this is  unspecified,  ls  will
	      use the LINK color instead.

       MISSING color-sequence
	      Specifies  the color used for a missing file (a nonexistent file which nevertheless has a symbolic link pointing to it).	If this is
	      unspecified, ls will use the FILE color instead.

       FIFO color-sequence
	      Specifies the color used for a FIFO (named pipe).

       SOCK color-sequence
	      Specifies the color used for a socket.

       DOOR color-sequence
	      (Supported since fileutils 4.1) Specifies the color used for a door (Solaris 2.5 and later).

       BLK color-sequence
	      Specifies the color used for a block device special file.

       CHR color-sequence
	      Specifies the color used for a character device special file.

       EXEC color-sequence
	      Specifies the color used for a file with the executable attribute set.

       LEFTCODE color-sequence
	      Specifies the left code for non-ISO 6429 terminals (see below).

       RIGHTCODE color-sequence
	      Specifies the right code for non-ISO 6429 terminals (see below).

       ENDCODE color-sequence
	      Specifies the end code for non-ISO 6429 terminals (see below).

       *extension color-sequence
	      Specifies the color used for any file that ends in extension.

	.extension color-sequence
	      Same as *.extension.  Specifies the color used for any file that ends in .extension.  Note that the period is included in the exten-
	      sion,  which  makes  it  impossible to specify an extension not starting with a period, such as ~ for emacs backup files.  This form
	      should be considered obsolete.

   ISO 6429 (ANSI) Color Sequences
       Most color-capable ASCII terminals today use ISO 6429 (ANSI) color sequences, and many common terminals without color capability, including
       xterm  and  the widely used and cloned DEC VT100, will recognize ISO 6429 color codes and harmlessly eliminate them from the output or emu-
       late them.  ls uses ISO 6429 codes by default, assuming colorization is enabled.

       ISO 6429 color sequences are composed of sequences of numbers separated by semicolons.  The most common codes are:

	  0	to restore default color
	  1	for brighter colors
	  4	for underlined text
	  5	for flashing text
	 30	for black foreground
	 31	for red foreground
	 32	for green foreground
	 33	for yellow (or brown) foreground
	 34	for blue foreground
	 35	for purple foreground
	 36	for cyan foreground
	 37	for white (or gray) foreground
	 40	for black background
	 41	for red background
	 42	for green background
	 43	for yellow (or brown) background
	 44	for blue background
	 45	for purple background
	 46	for cyan background
	 47	for white (or gray) background

       Not all commands will work on all systems or display devices.

       ls uses the following defaults:

	 NORMAL   0	  Normal (nonfilename) text
	 FILE	  0	  Regular file
	 DIR	  32	  Directory
	 LINK	  36	  Symbolic link
	 ORPHAN   undefined	  Orphaned symbolic link
	 MISSING  undefined	  Missing file
	 FIFO	  31	  Named pipe (FIFO)
	 SOCK	  33	  Socket
	 BLK	  44;37   Block device
	 CHR	  44;37   Character device
	 EXEC	  35	  Executable file

       A few terminal programs do not recognize the default properly.  If all text gets colorized after you do a  directory  listing,  change  the
       NORMAL and FILE codes to the numerical codes for your normal foreground and background colors.

   Other Terminal Types (Advanced Configuration)
       If  you have a color-capable (or otherwise highlighting) terminal (or printer!) which uses a different set of codes, you can still generate
       a suitable setup.  To do so, you will have to use the LEFTCODE, RIGHTCODE, and ENDCODE definitions.

       When writing out a filename, ls generates the following output sequence: LEFTCODE typecode RIGHTCODE filename ENDCODE, where  the  typecode
       is  the	color sequence that depends on the type or name of file.  If the ENDCODE is undefined, the sequence LEFTCODE NORMAL RIGHTCODE will
       be used instead.  The purpose of the left- and rightcodes is merely to reduce the amount of typing necessary (and to hide ugly escape codes
       away  from the user).  If they are not appropriate for your terminal, you can eliminate them by specifying the respective keyword on a line
       by itself.

       NOTE: If the ENDCODE is defined in the global section of the setup file, it cannot be undefined in a terminal-specific section of the file.
       This means any NORMAL definition will have no effect.  A different ENDCODE can, however, be specified, which would have the same effect.

   Escape Sequences
       To  specify  control-  or  blank  characters in the color sequences or filename extensions, either C-style -escaped notation or stty-style
       ^-notation can be used.	The C-style notation includes the following characters:

	 a	 Bell (ASCII 7)
	 	 Backspace (ASCII 8)
	 e	 Escape (ASCII 27)
	 f	 Form feed (ASCII 12)
	 
	 Newline (ASCII 10)
	 
	 Carriage Return (ASCII 13)
	 		 Tab (ASCII 9)
	 v	 Vertical Tab (ASCII 11)
	 ?	 Delete (ASCII 127)
	 
nn Any character (octal notation)
	 xnnn	      Any character (hexadecimal notation)
	 \_	 Space
	 \	Backslash ()
	 ^	 Caret (^)
	 #	 Hash mark (#)

       Please note that escapes are necessary to enter a space, backslash, caret, or any control character anywhere in the string, as  well  as  a
       hash mark as the first character.

FILES

       /etc/DIR_COLORS
	      System-wide configuration file.

       ~/.dir_colors
	      Per-user configuration file.

       This page describes the dir_colors file format as used in the fileutils-4.1 package; other versions may differ slightly.

NOTES

       The default LEFTCODE and RIGHTCODE definitions, which are used by ISO 6429 terminals are:

	 LEFTCODE  e[
	 RIGHTCODE m

       The default ENDCODE is undefined.

FILES

       /etc/DIR_COLORS
	      (Slackware, SuSE and RedHat only; ignored by GNU dircolors(1) and thus Debian.)  System-wide configuration file.

       ~/.dir_colors
	      (Slackware, SuSE and RedHat only; ignored by GNU dircolors(1) and thus Debian.)  Per-user configuration file.

SEE ALSO

       dircolors(1), ls(1), stty(1), xterm(1)

COLOPHON

       This  page is part of release 3.44 of the Linux man-pages project.  A description of the project, and information about reporting bugs, can
       be found at http://www.kernel.org/doc/man-pages/.

GNU
								    2001-12-26							     DIR_COLORS(5)