Unix & Linux Stack Exchange is a question and answer site for users of Linux, FreeBSD and other Un*x-like operating systems. It only takes a minute to sign up.
Sign up to join this community
I was wondering if any of you knew why doesn't my terminal keep displaying stuff colored, after I use the command ls -l -a --color=always
I would like it to stay colored, so when the next time I type ls -l -a it is colored.
Just to make it clear, I'm using Windows 10, and then with putty I SSH into a server, where I have an account, and it runs Linux.
Once the output of ls is on the terminal, it stays colored. But if you run ls again, whether the output is colored depends on the options you pass to ls this time. The ls command doesn't remember settings from one time to the next.
If you want to have default settings for a command, define an alias for it. For bash, the file where aliases are defined is .bashrc. So add the following line to your .bashrc:
alias ls='ls --color=auto'
In addition, bash doesn't read .bashrc if it's a login shell, only if it's an interactive non-login shell. To get the same interactive configuration in both cases, put the following line in your .bash_profile:
if [ -e ~/.profile ]; then . ~/.profile; fi
case $- in *i*) . ~/.bashrc;; esac # Load .bashrc if this login shell is interactive
For future customizations, use .profile or .bash_profile for session startup things like environment variables and .bashrc for interactive customizations such as aliases and shopt settings
If you ever want to run the ls program and bypass your alias, run \ls instead of ls.
alias in your shell? Is your shell indeed bash (that's the default on most Linux systems, check the output of ps $$)? Does ls --color=auto output colors?
– Gilles 'SO- stop being evil'
Apr 25 '16 at 12:20
echo $PATH | sed -e "s/\/opt\/teTeX3\//\/opt\/teTeX2\//g" ; export MANPATH=echo $MANPATH | sed -e "s/\/opt\/teTeX3\//\/opt\/teTeX2\//g"' alias tex3='export PATH=echo $PATH | sed -e "s/\/opt\/teTeX2\//\/opt\/teTeX3\//g" ; export MANPATH=echo $MANPATH | sed -e "s/\/opt\/teTeX2\//\/opt\/teTeX3\//g"'
– MatX
Apr 25 '16 at 17:24
.bashrc, or your shell isn't bash. What's the output of ps $$; cat ~/.bashrc ?
– Gilles 'SO- stop being evil'
Apr 25 '16 at 17:36
