DIR_COLORS(5)                                           Linux User Manual                                          DIR_COLORS(5)



NAME
       dir_colors - configuration file for dircolors(1)

DESCRIPTION
       The  program  ls(1) uses the environment variable LS_COLORS to determine the colors in which the filenames are to be dis-
       played.  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).)  Usu-
       ally, 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 envi-
       ronment variable) the following declarations apply to.  It is always possible to override a global declaration by a  sub-
       sequent 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.

       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.

       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).

       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.

       CHR color-sequence
              Specifies the color used for a character device special file.

       EXEC color-sequence
              Specifies the color used for a file with the executable attribute set.

       LEFTCODE color-sequence
              Specifies the left code for non-ISO 6429 terminals (see below).

       RIGHTCODE color-sequence
              Specifies the right code for non-ISO 6429 terminals (see below).

       ENDCODE color-sequence
              Specifies the end code for non-ISO 6429 terminals (see below).

       *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.

   ISO 6429 (ANSI) Color Sequences
       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 list-
       ing, change the NORMAL and FILE codes to the numerical codes for your normal foreground and background colors.

   Other Terminal Types (Advanced Configuration)
       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 ter-
       minal, 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 speci-
       fied, which would have the same effect.

   Escape Sequences
       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 (#)

       Please  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.

FILES
       /etc/DIR_COLORS
              System-wide configuration file.

       ~/.dir_colors
              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.

NOTES
       The default LEFTCODE and RIGHTCODE definitions, which are used by ISO 6429 terminals are:

         LEFTCODE  \e[
         RIGHTCODE m

       The default ENDCODE is undefined.

SEE ALSO
       dircolors(1), ls(1), stty(1), xterm(1)

COLOPHON
       This page is part of release 3.25 of the Linux man-pages project.  A description of the project,  and  information  about
       reporting bugs, can be found at http://www.kernel.org/doc/man-pages/.



GNU                                                        2001-12-26                                              DIR_COLORS(5)