From Linux Man Pages
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 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 dircol-
ors(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 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 environment variable) the following declarations apply to. It is always possible to override a
global declaration by a subsequent 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. Please
note that dircolors does not verify the validity of these options.
NORMAL color-sequence
Specifies the color used for normal (non-filename) 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 file-utils 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 col-
orization 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 (non-filename) 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 direc-
tory 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, RIGHTCODE, and END-
CODE 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 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 different ENDCODE can,
however, be specified, 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.
NOTES
The default LEFTCODE and RIGHTCODE definitions, which are used by ISO 6429 terminals are:
LEFTCODE \e[
RIGHTCODE m
The default ENDCODE is undefined.
RELATED
dircolors(1), ls(1), stty(1), xterm(1)
FILES
/etc/DIR_COLORS
System-wide configuration file.
~/.dir_colors
Per-user configuration file.
NOTES
This page describes the dir_colors file format as used in the fileutils-4.1 package; other versions may differ
slightly.
CATEGORY