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rubo77
Asked: 2014-05-15 23:27:13 +0800 CST

How do I change the color for directories with ls in the console?

  • 772

On my console the color for directories is such a blue, that it is hard to read on a dark background.

How can I change the color definitions for ls?

colors

12 Answers

  1. Best Answer

    To change your directory colors, open up your ~/.bashrc file with your editor 

    nano ~/.bashrc

    and make the following entry at the end of the file:

    LS_COLORS=$LS_COLORS:'di=0;35:' ; export LS_COLORS

    Some nice color choices (in this case 0;35 it is purple) are:

    Blue = 34
Green = 32
Light Green = 1;32
Cyan = 36
Red = 31
Purple = 35
Brown = 33
Yellow = 1;33
Bold White = 1;37
Light Grey = 0;37
Black = 30
Dark Grey= 1;30

    The first number is the style (1=bold), followed by a semicolon, and then the actual number of the color, possible styles (effects) are:

    0   = default colour
1   = bold
4   = underlined
5   = flashing text (disabled on some terminals)
7   = reverse field (exchange foreground and background color)
8   = concealed (invisible)

    The possible backgrounds:

    40  = black background
41  = red background
42  = green background
43  = orange background
44  = blue background
45  = purple background
46  = cyan background
47  = grey background
100 = dark grey background
101 = light red background
102 = light green background
103 = yellow background
104 = light blue background
105 = light purple background
106 = turquoise background
107 = white background

    All possible colors:

    30  = black
31  = red
32  = green
33  = orange
34  = blue
35  = purple
36  = cyan
37  = grey
90  = dark grey
91  = light red
92  = light green
93  = yellow
94  = light blue
95  = light purple
96  = turquoise
97  = white

    These can even be combined, so that a parameter like:

    di=1;4;31;42

    in your LS_COLORS variable would make directories appear in bold underlined red text with a green background!

    To test all these colors and styles in your terminal, you can use one of:

    for i in 00{2..8} {0{3,4,9},10}{0..7}
do echo -e "$i \e[0;${i}mSubdermatoglyphic text\e[00m  \e[1;${i}mSubdermatoglyphic text\e[00m"
done

for i in 00{2..8} {0{3,4,9},10}{0..7}
do for j in 0 1
   do echo -e "$j;$i \e[$j;${i}mSubdermatoglyphic text\e[00m"
   done
done

    You can also change other kinds of files when using the ls command by defining each kind with:

    bd = (BLOCK, BLK)   Block device (buffered) special file
cd = (CHAR, CHR)    Character device (unbuffered) special file
di = (DIR)  Directory
do = (DOOR) [Door][1]
ex = (EXEC) Executable file (ie. has 'x' set in permissions)
fi = (FILE) Normal file
ln = (SYMLINK, LINK, LNK)   Symbolic link. If you set this to ‘target’ instead of a numerical value, the color is as for the file pointed to.
mi = (MISSING)  Non-existent file pointed to by a symbolic link (visible when you type ls -l)
no = (NORMAL, NORM) Normal (non-filename) text. Global default, although everything should be something
or = (ORPHAN)   Symbolic link pointing to an orphaned non-existent file
ow = (OTHER_WRITABLE)   Directory that is other-writable (o+w) and not sticky
pi = (FIFO, PIPE)   Named pipe (fifo file)
sg = (SETGID)   File that is setgid (g+s)
so = (SOCK) Socket file
st = (STICKY)   Directory with the sticky bit set (+t) and not other-writable
su = (SETUID)   File that is setuid (u+s)
tw = (STICKY_OTHER_WRITABLE)    Directory that is sticky and other-writable (+t,o+w)
*.extension =   Every file using this extension e.g. *.rpm = files with the ending .rpm

    A more complete list is available at Bigsoft - Configuring LS_COLORS.

    On some distributions, you might also want to change the background color for ow "(OTHER_WRITABLE) whose default is non-readable" for example to non-bold blue text on green background.

    You could use for instance LS_COLORS="$LS_COLORS:di=1;33" at the end of your .bashrc file, to get a nice readable bold orange text on black background.

    After you alter your .bashrc file, to put the changes in effect you will have to restart your shell or run source ~/.bashrc.

    Note: You can combine more commands with a colon, for example

    LS_COLORS=$LS_COLORS:'di=1;33:ln=36' ; export LS_COLORS; ls

    Source:

    • 346

  2. Very simple. Add these three lines to ~/.bashrc

    $ vi ~/.bashrc
export LS_OPTIONS='--color=auto'
eval "$(dircolors -b)"
alias ls='ls $LS_OPTIONS'

    If you want to apply the changes in a running bash session, run:

    source ~/.bashrc
    • 46

  3. Further to Hegazi's answer, you can actually control the directory colour, and a lot of other colours using the dircolors command. You can create a configuration file which is well documented.

    You can create a .dircolor file in your home directory as follows:

    dircolors -p > ~/.dircolors

    Then in your ~/.bashrc file add the lines

    eval "`dircolors -b ~/.dircolors`"
alias ls='ls --color=auto'

    This will create a $LS_COLORS variable for bash. The -c flag will set if for csh. It also flags the ls command to display in colour.

    Edit the value of the DIR attribute as above in the ~/.dircolor file colour to change the colour of the directory (or any of the other included file types for other colours). You can also change the colours of specific files, or define your own.

    • 11

  4. LS_COLORS

    This is a collection of extension:color mappings, suitable to use as your LS COLORS environment variable.

    • 7

  5. I don't like removing all colors because they are still useful. I prefer to keep current defaults and just remove the green background on directories. For this effect I just add one line to the end of my ~/.bashrc:

    export LS_COLORS=$LS_COLORS:'ow=1;34:'
    • 4

  6. The --color=auto option doesn't work for me using iTerm2 on my Mac. The -G option works though. I put the following alias in my ~/.profile and now directories are colored and have a trailing / appended:

    alias ls='ls -F -G'
    • 2

  7. For the instant solution, --color=auto may make no difference. The option you want is --color=never. Though piping the output through cat (or more) would also remove the colouring, and is quicker to type:

    ls -al | cat

    (I don't know who's idea of a joke it was to make light blue against light green the default.)

    • 1

  8. The is my approach for ls command with commonly used options:

    add the following lines into a file called ~/.alias

    alias ll='ls -lhF --color=auto'
alias llt='ls -lht --color=auto'
alias lla='ls -alF --color=auto'
alias la='ls -A --color=auto'
alias l='ls -CF --color=auto'
alias ls="ls --color=auto"

    add the following lines into ~/.bashrc

    if [ -f ~/.alias ]; then
    . ~/.alias
fi
    • 0

  9. Put below line into ~/.bashrc you are done.

    alias ls='ls --color=auto'

    To enable color prompt put one line below

    PS1='\[\033[1;36m\]\u\[\033[1;31m\]@\[\033[1;32m\]\h:\[\033[1;35m\]\w\[\033[1;31m\]\$\[\033[0m\] '
    • 0

  10. Vivid makes the process of changing ls's colors nice and easy.

    Install with:

    wget "https://github.com/sharkdp/vivid/releases/download/v0.7.0/vivid_0.7.0_amd64.deb"
sudo dpkg -i vivid_0.7.0_amd64.deb
    • 0