UNIX for Dummies Questions & Answers

I like using VIM with color tagging (using putty to SunOS). However, when I do an "export TERM=xterm-color", I can't make use of the clear command. Clear just has the same effect as pressing enter now. How can I fix this?


Also, does anyone know how to get the directories and file colors when I do an ls command? I don't have administrative privileges. I can create/edit files within my home directory though (like .profile and .bashrc).


One more thing, I've noticed that my long commands don't wrap around the console. It manages to wrap on the same line and writes over words. It's weird. How do I fix this? I have tried (.bashrc):

Code:

[ -z "$PS1" ] && return

#instead of wrapping onto the start of the same line.
shopt -s checkwinsize

1. Try xterm-ansi or just ansi. There's also a way to download a termlib entry and use it yourself, but I don't know how with Solaris. What version of Solaris?

2. Get gnu ls and build it with color support. Install it in ~/bin and set your PATH to include that directory before any others. Then create an environment variable called "LS_COLORS". Here's mine:

Code:

LS_COLORS=no=00:fi=00:di=40;33;01:ln=01;36:pi=40;33:so=01;35:bd=40;32:cd=40;32:or=01;05;37;41:mi=01;05;37;41:ex=01;32:
*.cmd=01;32:*.exe=01;32:*.com=01;32:*.btm=01;32:*.bat=01;32:*.sh=01;32:*.csh=01;32:*.tar=01;31:*.tgz=01;31:*.arj=01;31:
*.taz=01;31:*.lzh=01;31:*.zip=01;31:*.z=01;31:*.Z=01;31:*.gz=01;31:*.bz2=01;31:*.bz=01;31:*.tz=01;31:*.rpm=01;31:*.cpio=01;31:
*.jpg=01;35:*.gif=01;35:*.bmp=01;35:*.xbm=01;35:*.xpm=01;35:*.png=01;35:*.tif=01;35:

(Remove newlines and spaces). Directories are bright-yellow rather than dark blue, which I found hard to read on dark backgrounds.

Then alias or functionize your ls command thusly:

Code:

alias ls="/bin/ls --color=auto"

which will turn it on normally, but leave it off when piped to a command, like less. If you want to really get fancy, check out this post -- ls is replaced by a function in such a way that if the directory listing is actually more than a page, less is used. Color is always enabled if piped through less, which is enabled to show it in that case, but if going through a pipe, the standard ls command is used.

I tried the LS_COLORS before, but we don't have GNU ls and I don't have the permissions to install it. Oh well. xterm-ansi didn't do it either. Thanks for the suggestions though.

Grrr... of course you do! Just install it into your $HOME/bin directory!

When you do your configure step, you can do something like:
./configure --prefix=$HOME

Well, there is no gcc, g++, or cc installed. So nope, I don't have permission to even compile such a thing.

Do you have tcsh? You can edit .tcshrc and place "set color" and "set colocat"
Google it.

You can use the opensolaris/sfw packages to install GNU coreutils. For info on how to install these packages in your home directory, see the solutions for FAQ: question 7.