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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 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).)  Usually, the file used here is /etc/DIR_COLORS and can be  overrid‐
       den 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 vari‐
       able) the following declarations apply to.  It is always possible to override a global decla‐
       ration 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.  Multi‐
              ple 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 al‐
              ways  be enabled (yes or all), never enabled (no or none), or enabled only if the out‐
              put 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  de‐
              fault  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 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 nonexis‐
              tent 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 attribute set.

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

              Synonym: SETUID.

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

              Synonym: SETGID.

       STICKY color-sequence
              Specifies the color used for a directory with the sticky attribute 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 attri‐
              bute 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 extension, which makes it impossible to  spec‐
              ify  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 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 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 typ‐
       ing necessary (and to hide ugly escape codes away from the user).  If they are not  appropri‐
       ate  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  unde‐
       fined 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 in‐
       cludes 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 (#)

       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.)  Sys‐
              tem-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 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 5.10 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                                          2020-08-13                                DIR_COLORS(5)