User root and colors of scripts

[Basher52]

When I'm using my normal user(not su) then I get colors of scripts and it all is easy to read, but when I go into root then all text is white.

This has been so for the last... well way back since Fedora Core and some version I think, maybe longer, I can't remember, maybe even always.

Is there a way to set the correct colors when using user root too?

[Void Main]

Hmmm, my ls as root in Fedora has color. Check your aliases by typing "alias" and see if you have this one:

alias ls='ls --color=auto'

That gets set in /etc/profile.d/colorls.sh on my systems.

[Basher52]

oh, hehe forgot to say that it's VI that has the color problem
the 'ls' always show the files in white(on black background)

[Void Main]

Are you using "vim" or "vi" for your command? Add an alias to root "alias vi=vim" to root's .bashrc.

[Basher52]

I start 'VI' with the letters 'vi'. Tried that using 'vim ' and all colors showed up
Gonna add that, but I sure as he** won't remember that later lol so don¨t nuke this place since this is my linuxpedia. lol

Why is there a diff. between VI and VIM in the first place?

[Void Main]

vim is an "IMproved" version of vi, hence colors and the like. vi is the "basic" editor that is found on every UNIX system and what you would be using in recovery mode. You'll notice that it is located in /bin where vim is located in /usr/bin (and is much larger). Typically it's a bare essential utility that would be available at the most basic stage of boot. If you had a separate filesystem for /usr and that filesystem had a problem mounting you would still have access to /bin/vi which would reside on the root file system. That's just a few of the things I can think of off the top of my head.

[Basher52]

ok, got that and it seems smart enough
but why does the short 'vi' start a different program for a "normal" user
and "'root" starts another?

[Void Main]

ok, got that and it seems smart enough :)
but why does the short 'vi' start a different program for a "normal" user
and "'root" starts another?

Type "alias" as your normal user and then type "alias" as root and you will have your answer. A user account is aliased to start vim instead of vi when you type "vi". root generally is limited to more generic commands as it is an administrative account. vim is more of a "user" program. Having said that I always add the alias vi=vim to root's .bashrc on my systems.

[Basher52]

OK, got this too, thx

I'm gonna start using vim instead of vi, for both 'user' and 'root' just to get used to it