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How can you make a bash shell list executable files in a different color than non-executable files?

I've tried editing ~/.bashrc to contain the following line (it's otherwise empty):


But it's not working. What am I doing wrong? I'm working on Mac OS X.

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5 Answers

BSD ls works a bit differently

alias ls='ls -G'

should work.

And this isn't bash coloring, it is ls doing the colorization. When bash does a file list (try echo * in a directory) there is no way to colorize. Typing ls -G would work in any shell, though a shell (like bash) that has aliases makes it easier.

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On the Mac, you need to use

export CLICOLOR=1

I put that in the .bash_profile. However, I prefer Rich Homolka's solution to alias ls with -G flag. If you want to customize the colors:

man ls

and search for LSCOLORS

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To turn on colour output from the ls command without having to create an alias to ls or download any additional software, add the following to your ~/.bash_profile:

# Terminal colours
export CLICOLOR=1
export LSCOLORS=ExFxCxDxBxegedabagacad

If you don't like those colours you can use this ls color generator to customize that color list to your liking.

You'll need to do:

source ~/.bash_profile

After making any changes for them to take effect in your existing shell.

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no, it doesn't help at all –  holms Nov 16 '13 at 3:24
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The problem is that OS X doesn't have GNU ls; while its ls does support file name coloring, it can only do so by the type of file (file, directory, symlink, device special file, fifo, socket...). Install coreutils from Fink/MacPorts/HomeBrew, then use alias ls='gls --color=auto'.

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Thanks. I've installed coreutils from MacPorts. Should the alias line be in ~/.bashrc? That's where I've put it, but I'm not seeing any difference. –  AP257 Mar 22 '11 at 23:10
~/.bash_aliases may work better. I also found that I needed to run eval $(gdircolors -s) to set it up. –  geekosaur Mar 22 '11 at 23:12
@AP257: On my Mac, I put aliases into the .bash_profile –  Hai Vu Mar 29 '11 at 2:56
@Hai Vu: That only works if you never use subshells. –  geekosaur Mar 29 '11 at 2:58
@geekosaur gdircolors: invalid option -- 's' do you mean --sh ? –  Anentropic Jan 15 '13 at 12:44
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bash is only a shell, it does not list files. It executes commands, such as ls.

The --color option (and long options in general) is specific to the version of ls from GNU coreutils, which comes with most Linux distributions. On the other hand, Mac OS X has BSD roots and uses the BSD version of ls which does not support colouring.

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-1: It does support colouring, just with a different command-line flag: -G. –  Wuffers Mar 29 '11 at 2:58
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