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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 'dir-
       colors -p'.

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

       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 configuration file, and is fairly
              descriptive of the possibilities.

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

       --version
              Print version information on standard output, then exit success-
              fully.

       --     Terminate option list.

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.

CONFORMINGTO
       Coloured  output  for ls(1) is a GNU extension.  This implementation 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.

SEEALSO
       dir_colors(5), ls(1)

FILES
       The program dircolors itself does not use any configuration files. How-
       ever, 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 fileutils-4.0 package;
       other versions may differ slightly.  Mail corrections and additions  to
       aebcwi.nl.     Report    bugs    in    the   program   to   fileutils-
       bugsgnu.edu.



GNU fileutils 4.0                   1998-11                       DIRCOLORS(1)