I'm trying to understand what the colors of the different filenames listed by the ls command mean.

When I

printenv LS_COLORS

I get

rs=0:di=01;34:ln=01;36:hl=44;37i=40;33:so=01;35:do=01;35:bd=40;33;01:cd=40;33;01r=40;31;01:su=37 ;41:sg=30;43:ca=30;41:tw=30;42w=34;42:st=37;44:ex=01;32 #plus a whole lot more

I can find documentation on some of the abbreviations such as di is directory and hl is hard link, but I can't find information on all of the abbreviations. Can someone direct me to the complete official explanation of these abbreviations.

Does seem tricky to find a list of those short abbreviations. But, you may find "dircolors" to be informative. Try:

man dircolors

or

dircolors -p

for some place to start. Also, this mailing list thread: http://www.mail-archive.com/bug-core.../msg16736.html might help (or not) but I haven't read the whole thread..

Sasha

Thanks for your help I found some of the abbreviations but now all, still can't find ca, do, hl, ow, rs, st, su sg or tw

hl is likely hardlink.
su looks like set-UID
sg looks like set-GID
st may be "sticky-bit"
ow looks like "other-writeable"
tw looks like "sticky+other writeable"
do might be "door" (whatever that is?)
ca may be "capability" (whatever that is?)


As to these and the remaining mysteries, you may just have to do much Googling, until someone provides a link to what appears to be a complete list or if you find that list, be sure to post a link for us.

Sasha