dir_colors

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 displayed.   This  environ-
       ment 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 sec-
       tion 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  al-
       ways  possible  to override a global declaration by a subsequent termi-
       nal-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 en-
              abled (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  lead-
              ing  minus sign.  Note that dircolors does not verify the valid-
              ity 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 attri-
              bute set.

       SUID color-sequence
              Specifies the color used for a file with the set-user-ID  attri-
              bute set.

              Synonym: SETUID.

       SGID color-sequence
              Specifies the color used for a file with the set-group-ID attri-
              bute set.

              Synonym: SETGID.

       STICKY color-sequence
              Specifies the color used for a directory with the sticky  attri-
              bute 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 ex-
              tension,  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 se-
       quences, 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 en-
       abled.

       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.

   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,  RIGHT-
       CODE, and ENDCODE definitions.

       When  writing  out  a  filename,  ls generates the following output se-
       quence: LEFTCODE typecode RIGHTCODE filename ENDCODE, where  the  type-
       code  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  es-
       cape  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 differ-
       ent ENDCODE can, however, be specified, which would have the  same  ef-
       fect.

   Escape sequences
       To specify control- or blank characters in the color sequences or file-
       name extensions, either C-style \-escaped notation or stty-style  ^-no-
       tation  can be used.  The C-style notation includes the following char-
       acters:

              \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.

FILES
       /etc/DIR_COLORS
              (Slackware, SuSE and RedHat only; ignored  by  GNU  dircolors(1)
              and thus Debian.)  System-wide configuration file.

       ~/.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  fileu-
       tils-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 5.05 of the Linux  man-pages  project.   A
       description  of  the project, information about reporting bugs, and the
       latest    version    of    this    page,    can     be     found     at
       https://www.kernel.org/doc/man-pages/.

GNU                               2013-08-09                     DIR_COLORS(5)