DIRCOLORS(1)                                         DIRCOLORS(1)



NAME

       dircolors - color setup for `ls'


SYNOPSIS

       dircolors   [-b]   [--sh]  [--bourne-shell]  [-c]  [--csh]
       [--c-shell] [-p] [--print-database]  [--help]  [--version]
       [FILE]


DESCRIPTION

       dircolors  outputs  a sequence of shell commands to define
       the desired color output from ls (and dir, etc.).  Typical
       usage:
              eval `dircolors [OPTION]... [FILE]`

       If  FILE  is  specified,  dircolors  reads it to determine
       which colors to use for which file types  and  extensions.
       Otherwise, a compiled-in database is used.  For details on
       the format of these files, run `dircolors -p'.

       The output is a shell command to set the  LS_COLORS  envi-
       ronment variable.  You can specify the shell syntax to use
       on the command line, or dircolors will guess it  from  the
       value of the SHELL environment variable.

       After  execution  of this command, `ls --color' (which one
       might alias to ls) will list files in the desired  colors.



OPTIONS

       -b, --sh, --bourne-shell
              Output  Bourne shell commands.  This is the default
              if the SHELL environment variable is set  and  does
              not end with csh or tcsh.

       -c, --csh, --c-shell
              Output  C  shell  commands.  This is the default if
              SHELL ends with csh or tcsh.

       -p, --print-database
              Print the (compiled-in) default color configuration
              database.  This output is itself a valid configura-
              tion file, and is fairly descriptive of the  possi-
              bilities.


GNU STANDARD OPTIONS

       --help Print  a  usage message on standard output and exit
              successfully.

       --version
              Print version information on standard output,  then
              exit successfully.

       --     Terminate option list.




GNU fileutils 4.0         November 1998                         1





DIRCOLORS(1)                                         DIRCOLORS(1)



ENVIRONMENT

       The  variables  SHELL and TERM are used to find the proper
       form of the shell command.  The  variables  LANG,  LC_ALL,
       LC_CTYPE  and  LC_MESSAGES  have  the  usual meaning.  The
       variable LS_COLORS is used to transfer information to  ls.


CONFORMING TO

       Coloured output for ls(1) is a GNU extension.  This imple-
       mentation is not entirely  compatible  with  the  original
       dircolors/color-ls   package  distributed  with  Slackware
       Linux.  Notably, specific support for the Z shell and Korn
       shell  is  not  present.  Users of these shells should use
       the Bourne shell (-b) mode.


SEE ALSO

       dir_colors(5), ls(1)


FILES

       The program dircolors itself does not use  any  configura-
       tion  files. However, customarily the shell initialization
       scripts invoke dircolors with one of the following.

       /etc/DIR_COLORS
              System-wide configuration file for dircolors.

       ~/.dir_colors
              Per-user configuration file for dircolors.


NOTES

       This page  describes  dircolors  as  found  in  the  file-
       utils-4.0  package;  other  versions  may differ slightly.
       Mail corrections and additions to aeb@cwi.nl.  Report bugs
       in the program to fileutils-bugs@gnu.ai.mit.edu.
























GNU fileutils 4.0         November 1998                         2