How to make `ls` color its output by default, without setting up an alias?

Question

I don't want an alias (alias ls='ls --color'), and I had previously set this up on Mac OSX using CLICOLOR environment variable which magically brought colors to ls. Now I am on Linux (Arch x86-64) with xterm and a really basic setup, and I can't make ls output color (using ls verbatim). I do get color when using --color switch.

Is there no way to achieve this without an alias? POSIX compliance would be nice :-)

score 97 · Accepted Answer · answered Oct 25 '13 at 13:03

97

There is no way: the ls man page will show you that the default setting (for --color) is 'none' - ie. never use colour.

Any reason you don't want to use aliases? I'm a recovering Red Hat user, so every time I install a new distribution I set three ls aliases like so:

## Colorize the ls output ##
alias ls='ls --color=auto'

## Use a long listing format ##
alias ll='ls -la'

## Show hidden files ##
alias l.='ls -d .* --color=auto'

answered Oct 25 '13 at 13:03

pdah

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No reason I cannot - I was on Mac OSX the other day, and it supported the `CLICOLOR` which I thought was kind of standard (you always tend to think that these things are standard). And I also always thought of aliases as more of an retrofit solution. But they'll do just fine :-) – Armen Michaeli Oct 28 '13 at 10:25
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On Mac OSX you can use `alias ls='ls -G'` – Gal Bracha Aug 06 '17 at 13:44
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also add `alias grep='grep --color'` to it ;) – Amir Hossein Baghernezad Jul 07 '18 at 04:46
Put them together like so `alias ll='ls -la --color=auto'` – HackSlash Nov 05 '19 at 17:01

score 0 · Answer 2 · edited Oct 25 '21 at 12:17

0

You can use the alias method so that every time you open the terminal and use ls (verbatim just ls , not ls --color), results will be coloured. You can add the alias to your .bashrc, for example, as the following command line:

alias ls='ls --color=auto'

edited Oct 25 '21 at 12:17

Armen Michaeli

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answered Jul 26 '21 at 18:22

Samad Nasar

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Thank you, but I explicitly mentioned in the question: "I don't want an alias". Also, I am satisfied with the current accepted answer, although nothing would prevent you from adding another one, obviously, aliases or not. – Armen Michaeli Jul 26 '21 at 18:28

score -5 · Answer 3 · answered Nov 24 '18 at 23:21

-5

if using the -F option --color is unnecessary, for instance alias ll='ls -alF' shows colors

answered Nov 24 '18 at 23:21

Mark

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This is incorrect. – Scott - Слава Україні Nov 24 '18 at 23:49
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One can use `\ls -alF` to test the original ls command and not be confused with an option set elsewhere. – Biggybi Jan 28 '20 at 22:11

How to make `ls` color its output by default, without setting up an alias?

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