How can I list LS_COLORS in colour?

Question

I recall that eval "dircolors -b" used to display the colours that LS_COLORS was using, based on the file types or extensions. It was not simply the colour values that were displayed but the colours themselves. I could see the colour in which a .png or .ogg file would be displayed and change it if needed through a custom file.

I find that the output of eval "dircolors -b" is no more in colour.

Can someone kindly explain how I might get it back? Perhaps some environment variable is not getting set. Otherwise, is there a workaround?

Answer 1

Try this script:

( # Run in a subshell so it won't crash current color settings
    dircolors -b >/dev/null
    IFS=:
    for ls_color in ${LS_COLORS[@]}; do # For all colors
        color=${ls_color##*=}
        ext=${ls_color%%=*}
        echo -en "\E[${color}m${ext}\E[0m " # echo color and extension
    done
    echo
)

Output:

Answer 2

This version has some additional information and doesn't color the entire lines:

eval $(echo "no:global default;fi:normal file;di:directory;ln:symbolic link;pi:named pipe;so:socket;do:door;bd:block device;cd:character device;or:orphan symlink;mi:missing file;su:set uid;sg:set gid;tw:sticky other writable;ow:other writable;st:sticky;ex:executable;"|sed -e 's/:/="/g; s/\;/"\n/g')           
{      
   IFS=:     
   for i in $LS_COLORS     
    do        
        echo -e "\e[${i#*=}m$( x=${i%=*}; [ "${!x}" ] && echo "${!x}" || echo "$x" )\e[m" 
    done       
}

Part of answer by @karthick87 on Askubuntu
Also, see this answer: What causes this green background in ls output?