Terminal Colors

carlosinfl · 03-18-2008, 12:16 PM

My user account has no terminal colors and gets very hard to read with multiple files and folders in one "ls" command. When I do an "ls" as my regular user, I see the following:

Screenshot

My question is when I su - (as root), I then have a nice color schema available to me. Why is this not available to me as a regular user on Debian (Testing)?

I looked at my users .bashrc file however I find it very complex and don't really know what needs to be modified in order to get the colors working as they do for root.

Here is my users .bashrc

# ~/.bashrc: executed by bash(1) for non-login shells.
# see /usr/share/doc/bash/examples/startup-files (in the package bash-doc)
# for examples

# If not running interactively, don't do anything
[ -z "$PS1" ] && return

# don't put duplicate lines in the history. See bash(1) for more options
export HISTCONTROL=ignoredups

# check the window size after each command and, if necessary,
# update the values of LINES and COLUMNS.
shopt -s checkwinsize

# make less more friendly for non-text input files, see lesspipe(1)
[ -x /usr/bin/lesspipe ] && eval "$(lesspipe)"

# set variable identifying the chroot you work in (used in the prompt below)
if [ -z "$debian_chroot" ] && [ -r /etc/debian_chroot ]; then
debian_chroot=$(cat /etc/debian_chroot)
fi

# set a fancy prompt (non-color, unless we know we "want" color)
case "$TERM" in
xterm-color)
PS1='${debian_chroot:+($debian_chroot)}\[\033[01;32m\]\u@\h\[\033[00m\]:\[\033[01;34m\]\w\[\033[00m\]\$ '
;;
*)
PS1='${debian_chroot:+($debian_chroot)}\u@\h:\w\$ '
;;
esac

# Comment in the above and uncomment this below for a color prompt
#PS1='${debian_chroot:+($debian_chroot)}\[\033[01;32m\]\u@\h\[\033[00m\]:\[\033[01;34m\]\w\[\033[00m\]\$ '

# If this is an xterm set the title to user@host:dir
case "$TERM" in
xterm*|rxvt*)
PROMPT_COMMAND='echo -ne "\033]0;${USER}@${HOSTNAME}: ${PWD/$HOME/~}\007"'
;;
*)
;;
esac

# Alias definitions.
# You may want to put all your additions into a separate file like
# ~/.bash_aliases, instead of adding them here directly.
# See /usr/share/doc/bash-doc/examples in the bash-doc package.

#if [ -f ~/.bash_aliases ]; then
# . ~/.bash_aliases
#fi

# enable color support of ls and also add handy aliases
if [ "$TERM" != "dumb" ]; then
eval "`dircolors -b`"
alias ls='ls --color=auto'
#alias dir='ls --color=auto --format=vertical'
#alias vdir='ls --color=auto --format=long'
fi

# some more ls aliases
alias ls='ls -l'
alias la='ls -A'
alias l='ls -CF'

# enable programmable completion features (you don't need to enable
# this, if it's already enabled in /etc/bash.bashrc and /etc/profile
# sources /etc/bash.bashrc).
if [ -f /etc/bash_completion ]; then
. /etc/bash_completion
fi

JMJ_coder · 03-18-2008, 12:29 PM

Hello,

Quote:

Originally Posted by Carlwill

Code:

# enable color support of ls and also add handy aliases
if [ "$TERM" != "dumb" ]; then
    eval "`dircolors -b`"
    alias ls='ls --color=auto'
    #alias dir='ls --color=auto --format=vertical'
    #alias vdir='ls --color=auto --format=long'
fi

Change the above to this:

Code:

# enable color support of ls and also add handy aliases
#if [ "$TERM" != "dumb" ]; then
#    eval "`dircolors -b`"
    alias ls='ls --color=auto'
    #alias dir='ls --color=auto --format=vertical'
    #alias vdir='ls --color=auto --format=long'
#fi

Add the comments in front of all lines except the one that says alias ls='ls --color=auto'.

If it works, you could delete the other lines if you wanted (though you wouldn't be compelled to).

carlosinfl · 03-20-2008, 09:44 AM

So now my bashrc looks as follows:

Code:

# enable color support of ls and also add handy aliases
#if [ "$TERM" != "dumb" ]; then
#    eval "`dircolors -b`"
    alias ls='ls --color=auto'
    #alias dir='ls --color=auto --format=vertical'
    #alias vdir='ls --color=auto --format=long'
#fi

# some more ls aliases
alias ls='ls -l'
alias la='ls -A'
alias l='ls -CF'

I still have everything displayed as white text only and I have no idea what is causing it. Is my file wrong?

Telemachos · 03-20-2008, 12:56 PM

Maybe you are using a terminal emulator that isn't color enabled? What terminal are you using? Your file wasn't wrong before - it was the Debian user default, which produces color output to ls automatically (in my experience) on a Gnome terminal.

war1025 · 03-20-2008, 01:23 PM

Along the same lines, where would one go to change which filetypes get displayed in what colors?

carlosinfl · 03-20-2008, 02:12 PM

I am using the default terminal with Debian Lenny.

Telemachos · 03-20-2008, 03:43 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Carlwill

I am using the default terminal with Debian Lenny.

No such animal. Are you in Gnome? XFCE? KDE? Based on your screenshot, it looks like Gnome I think, but it's hard to see. Click on Help and then About. What happens if you type in ls --color=auto?

norobro · 03-20-2008, 03:52 PM

Looks to me like you are re-aliasing ls without color under some more aliases.

tidiman07 · 03-20-2008, 03:53 PM

lol,

Quote:

No such animal.

made my day.