How do I use and configure Terminal Colours?

Terminal colors (and other commands) are controlled by configurations in your ~/.bashrc file. If you do a little googling for .bashrc configurations you can find some excellent custom configurations that you can use. The one I use is a combination of several different ones I found on the net as well as some custom changes I made to it. Here's a screenshot of it (in cygwin, since I'm currently at work).

And here's the contents of my ~/.bashrc file. If you look under aliases, the alias for ls appends the color flags to the command automatically, so if you just want colors for ls, then that's the line to use.

#-------------------------------------------------------------
# Source global definitions (if any)
#-------------------------------------------------------------


if [ -f /etc/bashrc ]; then
        . /etc/bashrc   # --> Read /etc/bashrc, if present.
fi


#-------------------------------------------------------------
# Some settings
#-------------------------------------------------------------

ulimit -S -c 0          # Don't want any coredumps.
set -o notify
set -o noclobber
set -o ignoreeof
set -o nounset
#set -o xtrace          # Useful for debuging.

# Enable options:
shopt -s cdspell
shopt -s cdable_vars
shopt -s checkhash
shopt -s checkwinsize
shopt -s sourcepath
shopt -s no_empty_cmd_completion
shopt -s cmdhist
shopt -s histappend histreedit histverify
shopt -s extglob        # Necessary for programmable completion.



export TIMEFORMAT=$'\nreal %3R\tuser %3U\tsys %3S\tpcpu %P\n'
export HISTTIMEFORMAT="%H:%M > "
export HISTIGNORE="&:bg:fg:ll:h"
export HOSTFILE=$HOME/.hosts    # Put list of remote hosts in ~/.hosts ...



#-------------------------------------------------------------
# Greeting, motd etc...
#-------------------------------------------------------------

# Define some colors first:
red='\e[0;31m'
RED='\e[1;31m'
blue='\e[0;34m'
BLUE='\e[1;34m'
cyan='\e[0;36m'
CYAN='\e[1;36m'
NC='\e[0m'              # No Color
# --> Nice. Has the same effect as using "ansi.sys" in DOS.


# Looks best on a terminal with black background.....
date

function _exit()        # Function to run upon exit of shell.
{
    echo -e "${RED}Hasta la vista, baby${NC}"
}
trap _exit EXIT


#-------------------------------------------------------------
# Shell Prompt
#-------------------------------------------------------------


if [[ "${DISPLAY%%:0*}" != "" ]]; then  
    HILIT=${red}   # remote machine: prompt will be partly red
else
    HILIT=${cyan}  # local machine: prompt will be partly cyan
fi

export PS1='\n\[\033[0;31m\]\u\[\033[0;37m\]@\[\033[0;32m\]\h\[\033[0;37m\]:\[\033[0;36m\]\W\[\033[0;32m\]\$ \[\033[0;37m\]' 




#===============================================================
#
# ALIASES AND FUNCTIONS
#
# Arguably, some functions defined here are quite big.
# If you want to make this file smaller, these functions can
# be converted into scripts and removed from here.
#
# Many functions were taken (almost) straight from the bash-2.04
# examples.
#
#===============================================================

#-------------------
# Personnal Aliases
#-------------------

alias rm='rm -i'
alias cp='cp -i'
alias mv='mv -i'
# -> Prevents accidentally clobbering files.
alias mkdir='mkdir -p'

alias h='history'
alias j='jobs -l'
alias which='type -a'
alias ..='cd ..'
alias path='echo -e ${PATH//:/\\n}'
alias libpath='echo -e ${LD_LIBRARY_PATH//:/\\n}'
alias print='/usr/bin/lp -o nobanner -d $LPDEST'
            # Assumes LPDEST is defined (default printer)
alias pjet='enscript -h -G -fCourier9 -d $LPDEST'
            # Pretty-print using enscript

alias du='du -kh'       # Makes a more readable output.
alias df='df -kTh'

alias vi='vim' #who wants to use vi over vim?

alias tarball='tar czvf'    #I can never remember the arguments
alias untarball='tar xzvf'

#-------------------------------------------------------------
# The 'ls' family (this assumes you use a recent GNU ls)
#-------------------------------------------------------------
alias ll="ls -l --group-directories-first"
alias ls='ls -hF --color'  # add colors for filetype recognition
alias la='ls -Al'          # show hidden files
alias lx='ls -lXB'         # sort by extension
alias lk='ls -lSr'         # sort by size, biggest last
alias lc='ls -ltcr'        # sort by and show change time, most recent last
alias lu='ls -ltur'        # sort by and show access time, most recent last
alias lt='ls -ltr'         # sort by date, most recent last
alias lm='ls -al |more'    # pipe through 'more'
alias lr='ls -lR'          # recursive ls
alias tree='tree -Csu'     # nice alternative to 'recursive ls'

# If your version of 'ls' doesn't support --group-directories-first try this:
# function ll(){ ls -l "$@"| egrep "^d" ; ls -lXB "$@" 2>&-| \
#                egrep -v "^d|total "; }


#-------------------------------------------------------------
# tailoring 'less'
#-------------------------------------------------------------

alias more='less'
export PAGER=less
export LESSCHARSET='latin1'
export LESSOPEN='|/usr/bin/lesspipe.sh %s 2>&-'
   # Use this if lesspipe.sh exists
export LESS='-i -N -w  -z-4 -g -e -M -X -F -R -P%t?f%f \
:stdin .?pb%pb\%:?lbLine %lb:?bbByte %bb:-...'


#-------------------------------------------------------------
# spelling typos - highly personnal and keyboard-dependent :-)
#-------------------------------------------------------------

alias xs='cd'
alias vf='cd'
alias moer='more'
alias moew='more'
alias kk='ll'


#-------------------------------------------------------------
# A few fun ones
#-------------------------------------------------------------


function xtitle()      # Adds some text in the terminal frame.
{
    case "$TERM" in
        *term | rxvt)
            echo -n -e "\033]0;$*\007" ;;
        *)  
            ;;
    esac
}

# aliases that use xtitle
alias top='xtitle Processes on $HOST && top'
alias make='xtitle Making $(basename $PWD) ; make'
alias ncftp="xtitle ncFTP ; ncftp"

# .. and functions
function man()
{
    for i ; do
        xtitle The $(basename $1|tr -d .[:digit:]) manual
        command man -F -a "$i"
    done
}


#-------------------------------------------------------------
# Make the following commands run in background automatically:
#-------------------------------------------------------------

function te()  # Wrapper around xemacs/gnuserv ...
{
    if [ "$(gnuclient -batch -eval t 2>&-)" == "t" ]; then
        gnuclient -q "$@";
    else
        ( xemacs "$@" &);
    fi
}

function soffice() { command soffice "$@" & }
function firefox() { command firefox "$@" & }
function xpdf() { command xpdf "$@" & }


#-------------------------------------------------------------
# File & string-related functions:
#-------------------------------------------------------------


# Find a file with a pattern in name:
function ff() { find . -type f -iname '*'$*'*' -ls ; }

# Find a file with pattern $1 in name and Execute $2 on it:
function fe()
{ find . -type f -iname '*'${1:-}'*' -exec ${2:-file} {} \;  ; }

# Find a pattern in a set of files and highlight them:
# (needs a recent version of egrep)
function fstr()
{
    OPTIND=1
    local case=""
    local usage="fstr: find string in files.
Usage: fstr [-i] \"pattern\" [\"filename pattern\"] "
    while getopts :it opt
    do
        case "$opt" in
        i) case="-i " ;;
        *) echo "$usage"; return;;
        esac
    done
    shift $(( $OPTIND - 1 ))
    if [ "$#" -lt 1 ]; then
        echo "$usage"
        return;
    fi
    find . -type f -name "${2:-*}" -print0 | \
    xargs -0 egrep --color=always -sn ${case} "$1" 2>&- | more 

}

function cuttail() # cut last n lines in file, 10 by default
{
    nlines=${2:-10}
    sed -n -e :a -e "1,${nlines}!{P;N;D;};N;ba" $1
}

function lowercase()  # move filenames to lowercase
{
    for file ; do
        filename=${file##*/}
        case "$filename" in
        */*) dirname==${file%/*} ;;
        *) dirname=.;;
        esac
        nf=$(echo $filename | tr A-Z a-z)
        newname="${dirname}/${nf}"
        if [ "$nf" != "$filename" ]; then
            mv "$file" "$newname"
            echo "lowercase: $file --> $newname"
        else
            echo "lowercase: $file not changed."
        fi
    done
}


function swap()  # Swap 2 filenames around, if they exist
{                #(from Uzi's bashrc).
    local TMPFILE=tmp.$$ 

    [ $# -ne 2 ] && echo "swap: 2 arguments needed" && return 1
    [ ! -e $1 ] && echo "swap: $1 does not exist" && return 1
    [ ! -e $2 ] && echo "swap: $2 does not exist" && return 1

    mv "$1" $TMPFILE 
    mv "$2" "$1"
    mv $TMPFILE "$2"
}

function extract()      # Handy Extract Program.
{
     if [ -f $1 ] ; then
         case $1 in
             *.tar.bz2)   tar xvjf $1     ;;
             *.tar.gz)    tar xvzf $1     ;;
             *.bz2)       bunzip2 $1      ;;
             *.rar)       unrar x $1      ;;
             *.gz)        gunzip $1       ;;
             *.tar)       tar xvf $1      ;;
             *.tbz2)      tar xvjf $1     ;;
             *.tgz)       tar xvzf $1     ;;
             *.zip)       unzip $1        ;;
             *.Z)         uncompress $1   ;;
             *.7z)        7z x $1         ;;
             *)           echo "'$1' cannot be extracted via >extract<" ;;
         esac
     else
         echo "'$1' is not a valid file"
     fi
}

#-------------------------------------------------------------
# Process/system related functions:
#-------------------------------------------------------------


function my_ps() { ps $@ -u $USER -o pid,%cpu,%mem,bsdtime,command ; }
function pp() { my_ps f | awk '!/awk/ && $0~var' var=${1:-".*"} ; }


function killps()                 # Kill by process name.
{
    local pid pname sig="-TERM"   # Default signal.
    if [ "$#" -lt 1 ] || [ "$#" -gt 2 ]; then
        echo "Usage: killps [-SIGNAL] pattern"
        return;
    fi
    if [ $# = 2 ]; then sig=$1 ; fi
    for pid in $(my_ps| awk '!/awk/ && $0~pat { print $1 }' pat=${!#} ) ; do
        pname=$(my_ps | awk '$1~var { print $5 }' var=$pid )
        if ask "Kill process $pid <$pname> with signal $sig?"
            then kill $sig $pid
        fi
    done
}

function my_ip() # Get IP adresses.
{
    MY_IP=$(/sbin/ifconfig ppp0 | awk '/inet/ { print $2 } ' | \
sed -e s/addr://)
    MY_ISP=$(/sbin/ifconfig ppp0 | awk '/P-t-P/ { print $3 } ' | \
sed -e s/P-t-P://)
}

function ii()   # Get current host related info.
{
    echo -e "\nYou are logged on ${RED}$HOST"
    echo -e "\nAdditionnal information:$NC " ; uname -a
    echo -e "\n${RED}Users logged on:$NC " ; w -h
    echo -e "\n${RED}Current date :$NC " ; date
    echo -e "\n${RED}Machine stats :$NC " ; uptime
    echo -e "\n${RED}Memory stats :$NC " ; free
    my_ip 2>&- ;
    echo -e "\n${RED}Local IP Address :$NC" ; echo ${MY_IP:-"Not connected"}
    echo -e "\n${RED}ISP Address :$NC" ; echo ${MY_ISP:-"Not connected"}
    echo -e "\n${RED}Open connections :$NC "; netstat -pan --inet;
    echo
}

#-------------------------------------------------------------
# Misc utilities:
#-------------------------------------------------------------

function repeat()       # Repeat n times command.
{
    local i max
    max=$1; shift;
    for ((i=1; i <= max ; i++)); do  # --> C-like syntax
        eval "$@";
    done
}


function ask()          # See 'killps' for example of use.
{
    echo -n "$@" '[y/n] ' ; read ans
    case "$ans" in
        y*|Y*) return 0 ;;
        *) return 1 ;;
    esac
}

function corename()   # Get name of app that created a corefile.
{ 
    for file ; do
        echo -n $file : ; gdb --core=$file --batch | head -1
    done 
}




#=========================================================================
# PROGRAMMABLE COMPLETION - ONLY SINCE BASH-2.04
# Most are taken from the bash 2.05 documentation and from Ian McDonald's
# 'Bash completion' package (http://www.caliban.org/bash/#completion).
# You will in fact need bash more recent than 3.0 for some features.
#=========================================================================

if [ "${BASH_VERSION%.*}" \< "3.0" ]; then
    echo "You will need to upgrade to version 3.0 \
for full programmable completion features."
    return
fi

shopt -s extglob         # Necessary,
#set +o nounset          # otherwise some completions will fail.

complete -A hostname   rsh rcp telnet rlogin r ftp ping disk
complete -A export     printenv
complete -A variable   export local readonly unset
complete -A enabled    builtin
complete -A alias      alias unalias
complete -A function   function
complete -A user       su mail finger

complete -A helptopic  help     # Currently, same as builtins.
complete -A shopt      shopt
complete -A stopped -P '%' bg
complete -A job -P '%'     fg jobs disown

complete -A directory  mkdir rmdir
complete -A directory   -o default cd

# Compression
complete -f -o default -X '*.+(zip|ZIP)'  zip
complete -f -o default -X '!*.+(zip|ZIP)' unzip
complete -f -o default -X '*.+(z|Z)'      compress
complete -f -o default -X '!*.+(z|Z)'     uncompress
complete -f -o default -X '*.+(gz|GZ)'    gzip
complete -f -o default -X '!*.+(gz|GZ)'   gunzip
complete -f -o default -X '*.+(bz2|BZ2)'  bzip2
complete -f -o default -X '!*.+(bz2|BZ2)' bunzip2
complete -f -o default -X '!*.+(zip|ZIP|z|Z|gz|GZ|bz2|BZ2)' extract


# Documents - Postscript,pdf,dvi.....
complete -f -o default -X '!*.+(ps|PS)'  gs ghostview ps2pdf ps2ascii
complete -f -o default -X '!*.+(dvi|DVI)' dvips dvipdf xdvi dviselect dvitype
complete -f -o default -X '!*.+(pdf|PDF)' acroread pdf2ps
complete -f -o default -X \
'!*.@(@(?(e)ps|?(E)PS|pdf|PDF)?(.gz|.GZ|.bz2|.BZ2|.Z))' gv ggv
complete -f -o default -X '!*.texi*' makeinfo texi2dvi texi2html texi2pdf
complete -f -o default -X '!*.tex' tex latex slitex
complete -f -o default -X '!*.lyx' lyx
complete -f -o default -X '!*.+(htm*|HTM*)' lynx html2ps
complete -f -o default -X \
'!*.+(doc|DOC|xls|XLS|ppt|PPT|sx?|SX?|csv|CSV|od?|OD?|ott|OTT)' soffice

# Multimedia
complete -f -o default -X \
'!*.+(gif|GIF|jp*g|JP*G|bmp|BMP|xpm|XPM|png|PNG)' xv gimp ee gqview
complete -f -o default -X '!*.+(mp3|MP3)' mpg123 mpg321
complete -f -o default -X '!*.+(ogg|OGG)' ogg123
complete -f -o default -X \
'!*.@(mp[23]|MP[23]|ogg|OGG|wav|WAV|pls|m3u|xm|mod|s[3t]m|it|mtm|ult|flac)' xmms
complete -f -o default -X \
'!*.@(mp?(e)g|MP?(E)G|wma|avi|AVI|asf|vob|VOB|bin|dat|vcd|\
ps|pes|fli|viv|rm|ram|yuv|mov|MOV|qt|QT|wmv|mp3|MP3|ogg|OGG|\
ogm|OGM|mp4|MP4|wav|WAV|asx|ASX)' xine



complete -f -o default -X '!*.pl'  perl perl5


# This is a 'universal' completion function - it works when commands have
# a so-called 'long options' mode , ie: 'ls --all' instead of 'ls -a'
# Needs the '-o' option of grep
#  (try the commented-out version if not available).

# First, remove '=' from completion word separators
# (this will allow completions like 'ls --color=auto' to work correctly).

COMP_WORDBREAKS=${COMP_WORDBREAKS/=/}


_get_longopts() 
{ 
    #$1 --help | sed  -e '/--/!d' -e 's/.*--\([^[:space:].,]*\).*/--\1/'| \
#grep ^"$2" |sort -u ;
    $1 --help | grep -o -e "--[^[:space:].,]*" | grep -e "$2" |sort -u 
}

_longopts()
{
    local cur
    cur=${COMP_WORDS[COMP_CWORD]}

    case "${cur:-*}" in
       -*)      ;;
        *)      return ;;
    esac

    case "$1" in
      \~*)      eval cmd="$1" ;;
        *)      cmd="$1" ;;
    esac
    COMPREPLY=( $(_get_longopts ${1} ${cur} ) )
}
complete  -o default -F _longopts configure bash
complete  -o default -F _longopts wget id info a2ps ls recode

_tar()
{
    local cur ext regex tar untar

    COMPREPLY=()
    cur=${COMP_WORDS[COMP_CWORD]}

    # If we want an option, return the possible long options.
    case "$cur" in
        -*)     COMPREPLY=( $(_get_longopts $1 $cur ) ); return 0;;
    esac

    if [ $COMP_CWORD -eq 1 ]; then
        COMPREPLY=( $( compgen -W 'c t x u r d A' -- $cur ) )
        return 0
    fi

    case "${COMP_WORDS[1]}" in
        ?(-)c*f)
            COMPREPLY=( $( compgen -f $cur ) )
            return 0
            ;;
            +([^Izjy])f)
            ext='tar'
            regex=$ext
            ;;
        *z*f)
            ext='tar.gz'
            regex='t\(ar\.\)\(gz\|Z\)'
            ;;
        *[Ijy]*f)
            ext='t?(ar.)bz?(2)'
            regex='t\(ar\.\)bz2\?'
            ;;
        *)
            COMPREPLY=( $( compgen -f $cur ) )
            return 0
            ;;

    esac

    if [[ "$COMP_LINE" == tar*.$ext' '* ]]; then
        # Complete on files in tar file.
        #
        # Get name of tar file from command line.
        tar=$( echo "$COMP_LINE" | \
               sed -e 's|^.* \([^ ]*'$regex'\) .*$|\1|' )
        # Devise how to untar and list it.
        untar=t${COMP_WORDS[1]//[^Izjyf]/}

        COMPREPLY=( $( compgen -W "$( echo $( tar $untar $tar \
                    2>/dev/null ) )" -- "$cur" ) )
        return 0

    else
        # File completion on relevant files.
        COMPREPLY=( $( compgen -G $cur\*.$ext ) )

    fi

    return 0

}

complete -F _tar -o default tar

_make()
{
    local mdef makef makef_dir="." makef_inc gcmd cur prev i;
    COMPREPLY=();
    cur=${COMP_WORDS[COMP_CWORD]};
    prev=${COMP_WORDS[COMP_CWORD-1]};
    case "$prev" in
        -*f)
            COMPREPLY=($(compgen -f $cur ));
            return 0
        ;;
    esac;
    case "$cur" in
        -*)
            COMPREPLY=($(_get_longopts $1 $cur ));
            return 0
        ;;
    esac;

    # make reads `GNUmakefile', then `makefile', then `Makefile'
    if [ -f ${makef_dir}/GNUmakefile ]; then
        makef=${makef_dir}/GNUmakefile
    elif [ -f ${makef_dir}/makefile ]; then
        makef=${makef_dir}/makefile
    elif [ -f ${makef_dir}/Makefile ]; then
        makef=${makef_dir}/Makefile
    else
        makef=${makef_dir}/*.mk        # Local convention.
    fi


    # Before we scan for targets, see if a Makefile name was
    # specified with -f ...
    for (( i=0; i < ${#COMP_WORDS[@]}; i++ )); do
        if [[ ${COMP_WORDS[i]} == -f ]]; then
           # eval for tilde expansion
           eval makef=${COMP_WORDS[i+1]}
           break
        fi
    done
    [ ! -f $makef ] && return 0

    # deal with included Makefiles
    makef_inc=$( grep -E '^-?include' $makef | \
    sed -e "s,^.* ,"$makef_dir"/," )
    for file in $makef_inc; do
        [ -f $file ] && makef="$makef $file"
    done


    # If we have a partial word to complete, restrict completions to
    # matches of that word.
    if [ -n "$cur" ]; then gcmd='grep "^$cur"' ; else gcmd=cat ; fi

    COMPREPLY=( $( awk -F':' '/^[a-zA-Z0-9][^$#\/\t=]*:([^=]|$)/ \
                                {split($1,A,/ /);for(i in A)print A[i]}' \
                                $makef 2>/dev/null | eval $gcmd  ))

}

complete -F _make -X '+($*|*.[cho])' make gmake pmake




_killall()
{
    local cur prev
    COMPREPLY=()
    cur=${COMP_WORDS[COMP_CWORD]}

    # get a list of processes (the first sed evaluation
    # takes care of swapped out processes, the second
    # takes care of getting the basename of the process)
    COMPREPLY=( $( /usr/bin/ps -u $USER -o comm  | \
        sed -e '1,1d' -e 's#[]\[]##g' -e 's#^.*/##'| \
        awk '{if ($0 ~ /^'$cur'/) print $0}' ))

    return 0
}

complete -F _killall killall killps



# A meta-command completion function for commands like sudo(8), which need to
# first complete on a command, then complete according to that command's own
# completion definition - currently not quite foolproof,
# but still quite useful (By Ian McDonald, modified by me).


_meta_comp()
{
    local cur func cline cspec

    COMPREPLY=()
    cur=${COMP_WORDS[COMP_CWORD]}
    cmdline=${COMP_WORDS[@]}
    if [ $COMP_CWORD = 1 ]; then  
         COMPREPLY=( $( compgen -c $cur ) )
    else
        cmd=${COMP_WORDS[1]}            # Find command.
        cspec=$( complete -p ${cmd} )   # Find spec of that command.

        # COMP_CWORD and COMP_WORDS() are not read-only,
        # so we can set them before handing off to regular
        # completion routine:
        # Get current command line minus initial command,
        cline="${COMP_LINE#$1 }"
        # split current command line tokens into array,
        COMP_WORDS=( $cline )
        # set current token number to 1 less than now.
        COMP_CWORD=$(( $COMP_CWORD - 1 ))
        # If current arg is empty, add it to COMP_WORDS array
        # (otherwise that information will be lost).
        if [ -z $cur ]; then COMP_WORDS[COMP_CWORD]=""  ; fi

        if [ "${cspec%%-F *}" != "${cspec}" ]; then
      # if -F then get function:
            func=${cspec#*-F }
            func=${func%% *}
            eval $func $cline   # Evaluate it.
        else
            func=$( echo $cspec | sed -e 's/^complete//' -e 's/[^ ]*$//' )
            COMPREPLY=( $( eval compgen $func $cur ) )
        fi

    fi

}


complete -o default -F _meta_comp nohup \
eval exec trace truss strace sotruss gdb
complete -o default -F _meta_comp command type which man nice time

# Local Variables:
# mode:shell-script
# sh-shell:bash
# End:

I have this in a file called ~/.LESS_TERMCAP:

export LESS_TERMCAP_mb=$(tput bold; tput setaf 2) # green
export LESS_TERMCAP_md=$(tput bold; tput setaf 6) # cyan
export LESS_TERMCAP_me=$(tput sgr0)
export LESS_TERMCAP_so=$(tput bold; tput setaf 3; tput setab 4) # yellow on blue
export LESS_TERMCAP_se=$(tput rmso; tput sgr0)
export LESS_TERMCAP_us=$(tput smul; tput bold; tput setaf 7) # white
export LESS_TERMCAP_ue=$(tput rmul; tput sgr0)
export LESS_TERMCAP_mr=$(tput rev)
export LESS_TERMCAP_mh=$(tput dim)
export LESS_TERMCAP_ZN=$(tput ssubm)
export LESS_TERMCAP_ZV=$(tput rsubm)
export LESS_TERMCAP_ZO=$(tput ssupm)
export LESS_TERMCAP_ZW=$(tput rsupm)

And then in my ~/.bashrc:

. ~/.LESS_TERMCAP

In particular, it makes man pages more colorful. You could speed it up by hard-coding the color codes instead of using tput.