dir_colors - configuration file for
dircolors(1)
The program
ls(1) uses the environment variable
LS_COLORS to
determine the colors in which the filenames are to be displayed. This
environment 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 compatibility 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.
- Synonym: NORM.
- 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.
- Synonyms: LNK, SYMLINK.
- 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).
- Synonym: 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.
- Synonym: BLOCK.
- CHR color-sequence
- Specifies the color used for a character device special
file.
- Synonym: CHAR.
- EXEC color-sequence
- Specifies the color used for a file with the executable
attribute set.
- SUID color-sequence
- Specifies the color used for a file with the set-user-ID
attribute set.
- Synonym: SETUID.
- SGID color-sequence
- Specifies the color used for a file with the set-group-ID
attribute set.
- Synonym: SETGID.
- STICKY color-sequence
- Specifies the color used for a directory with the sticky
attribute set.
- STICKY_OTHER_WRITABLE color-sequence
- Specifies the color used for an other-writable directory
with the executable attribute set.
- Synonym: OWT.
- OTHER_WRITABLE color-sequence
- Specifies the color used for an other-writable directory
without the executable attribute set.
- Synonym: OWR.
- LEFTCODE color-sequence
- Specifies the left code for non-ISO 6429
terminals (see below).
- Synonym: LEFT.
- RIGHTCODE color-sequence
- Specifies the right code for non-ISO 6429
terminals (see below).
- Synonym: RIGHT.
- ENDCODE color-sequence
- Specifies the end code for non-ISO 6429
terminals (see below).
- Synonym: END.
-
*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 extension, 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.
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 emulate 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.
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.
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) |
| \b |
Backspace (ASCII 8) |
| \e |
Escape (ASCII 27) |
| \f |
Form feed (ASCII 12) |
| \n |
Newline (ASCII 10) |
| \r |
Carriage Return (ASCII 13) |
| \t |
Tab (ASCII 9) |
| \v |
Vertical Tab (ASCII 11) |
| \? |
Delete (ASCII 127) |
| \nnn
|
Any character (octal notation) |
|
\xnnn
|
Any character (hexadecimal notation) |
| \_ |
Space |
| \\ |
Backslash (\) |
| \^ |
Caret (^) |
| \# |
Hash mark (#) |
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.
- /etc/DIR_COLORS
- System-wide configuration file. (Slackware, SuSE and RedHat
only; ignored by GNU dircolors(1) and thus Debian.)
- ~/.dir_colors
- +. (Slackware, SuSE and RedHat only; ignored by GNU
dircolors(1) and thus Debian.) 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.
The default
LEFTCODE and
RIGHTCODE definitions, which are used by
ISO 6429 terminals are:
The default
ENDCODE is undefined.
dircolors(1),
ls(1),
stty(1),
xterm(1)