05-17-2005, 12:40 AM

now, on the terminal mac os x, I don't see colors which are distinguish folders, files, or execute file. different in linux, we are see blue for folders, green for execute files, red for tar files, and etc..

does anyone knows how to enable the colors on the terminal on mac os x, because it seems just has plain, without colors.

thank you all...

05-17-2005, 11:09 AM

Put this in your .bashrc:


export CLICOLOR='true'
export LSCOLORS="gxfxcxdxbxegedabagacad"

if you want to change the colors, man ls for the settings of the LSCOLORS.

05-17-2005, 12:22 PM

Originally Posted by cradom

Put this in your .bashrc:


export CLICOLOR='true'
export LSCOLORS="gxfxcxdxbxegedabagacad"

if you want to change the colors, man ls for the settings of the LSCOLORS.

it doesn't work, but thanks for the reply. I don't know why it doesn't work.

05-17-2005, 11:23 PM

What shell are you using? What version of OS X? Those commands were for bash under 10.3.9.

05-17-2005, 11:37 PM

Open terminal. Under terminal menu, > Window settings > Click arrows where it says shell. Color is just past half way down

05-18-2005, 02:15 AM

Originally Posted by cradom

What shell are you using? What version of OS X? Those commands were for bash under 10.3.9.

I am using mac os x 10.4 tiger.

05-18-2005, 02:16 AM

Originally Posted by witeshark

Open terminal. Under terminal menu, > Window settings > Click arrows where it says shell. Color is just past half way down

is not that what I mean

05-18-2005, 10:44 AM

Hmm..try setting it to xterm-color.

export TERM='xterm-color'

05-18-2005, 02:48 PM

nope.. doesn't work, I've tried so many ways, but still, it doesn't work.. may be I didn't do it the right way. but thanks for your replies cradom..

05-18-2005, 11:54 PM

Well, I'm out of ideas and since I'm still in Panther I cant test it. Sorry.

06-04-2005, 03:43 PM

One of the first answers

Originally Posted by zero17

export CLICOLOR='true'

was close.

You indeed have to set the environment CLICOLOR to true, but in the default tcsh you do this differently.

You could change the example environment file (this will enable color for ALL users): /usr/share/tcsh/examples/environment
and add to it this line: setenv CLICOLOR true

06-04-2005, 06:07 PM

If he did a clean install of Tiger the default should be bash. If indeed he is using tcsh then my example wont work.

06-21-2005, 01:30 PM

zero17, I take it that you are using /Applications/Utilities/Terminal and are not seeing different colors of files and folders while using the 'ls' command. This is the way the 'ls' command works in Mac OS X, and as I am aware there is no way to change it to distinguish filetypes with colors.

06-24-2005, 09:38 AM

Originally Posted by mikeazorin

zero17, I take it that you are using /Applications/Utilities/Terminal and are not seeing different colors of files and folders while using the 'ls' command. This is the way the 'ls' command works in Mac OS X, and as I am aware there is no way to change it to distinguish filetypes with colors.

I see, that sucks then.. thanks mikeazorin

06-24-2005, 11:35 AM

Originally Posted by mikeazorin

zero17, I take it that you are using /Applications/Utilities/Terminal and are not seeing different colors of files and folders while using the 'ls' command. This is the way the 'ls' command works in Mac OS X, and as I am aware there is no way to change it to distinguish filetypes with colors.

Not true. Man ls and look where it says Environment.
BTW: I got Tiger now and it works fine, although dark blue on black is hard to read. I need to change that
Are you using bash or tcsh?
Also, in preferences for Terminal, do you have Disable ANSI colors checked?
Uncheck it.