Help with dircolors-fileutils 4.1/Etiquette

06-13-2002, 09:21 AM

I was hoping someone could help me with a problem I'm having with fileutils 4.1. I downloaded and installed these commands with Fink and everything seems to be in order. My problem is that by default the ls command colors all the files that are executable by the user one single color. This overides most of the other color scheming so about 60 of my files just show up as executable instead of as .tgz, .jpg, etc. which would be much more useful to me. I have tried taken the Executable varible (EXEC 01;32) out of the set LS_COLORS code but then the code just reverts to the default. I've also tried to find a defaults file and change it there but I haven't had any luck. Does anyone have any suggestions? It would be greatly appreciated, and though this isn't a huge deal it would be nice to understand how it works. TIA

BTW - what is the etiquette involved in emailing the people who are responsible for the code or for overseeing it on Fink. I'm new to *nix in general and I don't want to bother people with something that can be seen as fairly trival. Thanks again!

mervTormel · 06-13-2002, 02:02 PM

you should remove the executable mode on files that aren't executable. like .tgz and .jpg . if you remove the x mode (and put all your dircolors back to stock) you should see the effect you want.

% chmod -x *.jpg *.tgz

be sure to target that chmod particular files that are not directories or valid executables, like a shell script.

thatch · 06-13-2002, 05:44 PM

I replaced my .dircolors file with an edited one that is more to my liking. You can edit and replace it for whatever you want. Here's what mine has:

# Configuration file for the color ls utility
# This file goes in the /etc directory, and must be world readable.
# You can copy this file to .dir_colors in your $HOME directory to override
# the system defaults.

# COLOR needs one of these arguments: 'tty' colorizes output to ttys, but not
# pipes. 'all' adds color characters to all output. 'none' shuts colorization
# off.
COLOR tty

# Extra command line options for ls go here.
# Basically these ones are:
# -F = show '/' for dirs, '*' for executables, etc.
# -T 0 = don't trust tab spacing when formatting ls output.
OPTIONS -F -T 0

# Below, there should be one TERM entry for each termtype that is colorizable
TERM linux
TERM console
TERM con132x25
TERM con132x30
TERM con132x43
TERM con132x60
TERM con80x25
TERM con80x28
TERM con80x30
TERM con80x43
TERM con80x50
TERM con80x60
TERM cons25
TERM xterm
TERM rxvt
TERM xterm-color
TERM color-xterm
TERM vt100
TERM dtterm
TERM color_xterm

# EIGHTBIT, followed by '1' for on, '0' for off. (8-bit output)
EIGHTBIT 1

# Below are the color init strings for the basic file types. A color init
# string consists of one or more of the following numeric codes:
# Attribute codes:
# 00=none 01=bold 04=underscore 05=blink 07=reverse 08=concealed
# Text color codes:
# 30=black 31=red 32=green 33=yellow 34=blue 35=magenta 36=cyan 37=white
# Background color codes:
# 40=black 41=red 42=green 43=yellow 44=blue 45=magenta 46=cyan 47=white
NORMAL 00 # global default, although everything should be something.
FILE 01 # normal file
DIR 01;35 # directory
LINK 01;32 # symbolic link
FIFO 40;33 # pipe
SOCK 01;36 # socket
BLK 40;33;01 # block device driver
CHR 40;33;01 # character device driver
ORPHAN 01;05;37;41 # orphaned syminks
MISSING 01;05;37;41 # ... and the files they point to

# This is for files with execute permission:
EXEC 01;32

# List any file extensions like '.gz' or '.tar' that you would like ls
# to colorize below. Put the extension, a space, and the color init string.
# (and any comments you want to add after a '#')
.cmd 01;31 # executables (bright green)
.exe 01;31
.com 01;31
.btm 01;31
.bat 01;31
.sh 01;31
.csh 01;31
.tar 01;31 # archives or compressed (bright red)
.tgz 01;31
.arj 01;31
.taz 01;31
.lzh 01;31
.zip 01;31
.z 01;31
.Z 01;31
.gz 01;31
.bz2 01;31
.bz 01;31
.tz 01;31
.rpm 01;31
.cpio 01;31
.jpg 01;35 # image formats
.gif 01;35
.bmp 01;35
.xbm 01;35
.xpm 01;35
.png 01;35
.tif 01;35

mervTormel · 06-13-2002, 06:37 PM

Quote:


	I replaced my .dircolors file with an edited one that is more to my liking

ha! smurfette vs. the X-men

cool, thatch. too bad the ANSI colors are so, uh, eight-bit. that magenta's a real gakker, to me, anyway.

thatch · 06-13-2002, 07:03 PM

I agree, magenta is kind of ugly. But as long as it is different so my eyes catch it easily, that's all I really need.

This reminds me of a change that was made to a portfolio page on Merrill Lynch's web site a few years back. It used to show gains and losses in green and red respectively. Then one day, no more, all black and much harder to quickly read.

They later tossed me a survey about what I thought of their site and I told them about the change with the portfolio colors but they never changed it back. It couldn't have been something too difficult for them to do and so when they hype about listening to their clients and tailoring to their clients needs, I say HOGWASH!

mervTormel · 06-13-2002, 07:29 PM

black is a color, too. in fact, in reflective terms, black is all colors, white is the absence of color. or is that refractive? can't remember; if you have three vellums of primary colors, put them all together, you get black. so, all RGB guns on equals black? i think that's why powerbook users complain about black screen draining the battery? anyhow, i'm blathering. but, lastly, you'll begin to notice that all advertising is hype.

thatch · 06-13-2002, 10:06 PM

Blathering with balderdash, ballyhoo and brouhaha. It's comforting to know that this is a place where we can, well, speak our minds.

Yup, the hype of advertising is just that, all hype. Those hidden persuaders. But when a big firm comes and says, "How can we make our relationship with you better?", and then you tell them and they don't even give it another thought, I'd say they may need some better advertising.

Anybody remember a movie from way back, about ten years or so ago, called Crazy People, starring Dudley Moore and Daryl Hanna? It told the story of an advertising executive, Dudley, who had a thought that it would be better to tell the truth in advertising. So, he constructed ads that way and his boss thought he'd really lost it when he saw some ad about Metamucil and needing to buy it if you wanted to go to the bathroom ever again.

Then the boss sent him to a nut house for some R&R. And while he was in there, his ads made sales go through the roof, so the boss went to see him at the nut house and made everyone there a part of the new advertising team. A whole flock of loony birds. They all wrote truth in advertising types of ads which rocketed sales. And all they wanted in return was a night out to the opera and a car of their own choosing each which was eventually granted to them. Hilarious!

mervTormel · 06-13-2002, 10:17 PM

yeah, i remember that movie fondly. metamucil. it helps you go to the toilet. volvo. they're boxy, but they're good.

it's disturbing that the advertising conduct has bled into the PR depts.

"Hypermegacompuglobalnet. We'll solve your every problem."

Hugh Lyon Sack
Corporate Spokesperson

"They solved my every problem!"

Lyle Bedamned
Staff Skeptic

thatch · 06-14-2002, 03:14 AM

On the lighter side then, how about that ad that promised *jobs from women you never met before? Or the Porche ad? Too funny.

But on the more serious note, I couldn't agree more. Buyer beware is the name in anybody's game now more than ever.

06-13-2002, 09:21 AM	#1
richardjpratt Guest Posts: n/a	Help with dircolors-fileutils 4.1/Etiquette I was hoping someone could help me with a problem I'm having with fileutils 4.1. I downloaded and installed these commands with Fink and everything seems to be in order. My problem is that by default the ls command colors all the files that are executable by the user one single color. This overides most of the other color scheming so about 60 of my files just show up as executable instead of as .tgz, .jpg, etc. which would be much more useful to me. I have tried taken the Executable varible (EXEC 01;32) out of the set LS_COLORS code but then the code just reverts to the default. I've also tried to find a defaults file and change it there but I haven't had any luck. Does anyone have any suggestions? It would be greatly appreciated, and though this isn't a huge deal it would be nice to understand how it works. TIA BTW - what is the etiquette involved in emailing the people who are responsible for the code or for overseeing it on Fink. I'm new to *nix in general and I don't want to bother people with something that can be seen as fairly trival. Thanks again!

06-13-2002, 02:02 PM	#2
mervTormel League Commissioner Join Date: Jan 2002 Posts: 5,536	you should remove the executable mode on files that aren't executable. like .tgz and .jpg . if you remove the x mode (and put all your dircolors back to stock) you should see the effect you want. % chmod -x .jpg .tgz be sure to target that chmod particular files that are not directories or valid executables, like a shell script.

06-13-2002, 05:44 PM	#3
thatch All Star Join Date: Jan 2002 Posts: 534	I replaced my .dircolors file with an edited one that is more to my liking. You can edit and replace it for whatever you want. Here's what mine has: # Configuration file for the color ls utility # This file goes in the /etc directory, and must be world readable. # You can copy this file to .dir_colors in your $HOME directory to override # the system defaults. # COLOR needs one of these arguments: 'tty' colorizes output to ttys, but not # pipes. 'all' adds color characters to all output. 'none' shuts colorization # off. COLOR tty # Extra command line options for ls go here. # Basically these ones are: # -F = show '/' for dirs, '*' for executables, etc. # -T 0 = don't trust tab spacing when formatting ls output. OPTIONS -F -T 0 # Below, there should be one TERM entry for each termtype that is colorizable TERM linux TERM console TERM con132x25 TERM con132x30 TERM con132x43 TERM con132x60 TERM con80x25 TERM con80x28 TERM con80x30 TERM con80x43 TERM con80x50 TERM con80x60 TERM cons25 TERM xterm TERM rxvt TERM xterm-color TERM color-xterm TERM vt100 TERM dtterm TERM color_xterm # EIGHTBIT, followed by '1' for on, '0' for off. (8-bit output) EIGHTBIT 1 # Below are the color init strings for the basic file types. A color init # string consists of one or more of the following numeric codes: # Attribute codes: # 00=none 01=bold 04=underscore 05=blink 07=reverse 08=concealed # Text color codes: # 30=black 31=red 32=green 33=yellow 34=blue 35=magenta 36=cyan 37=white # Background color codes: # 40=black 41=red 42=green 43=yellow 44=blue 45=magenta 46=cyan 47=white NORMAL 00 # global default, although everything should be something. FILE 01 # normal file DIR 01;35 # directory LINK 01;32 # symbolic link FIFO 40;33 # pipe SOCK 01;36 # socket BLK 40;33;01 # block device driver CHR 40;33;01 # character device driver ORPHAN 01;05;37;41 # orphaned syminks MISSING 01;05;37;41 # ... and the files they point to # This is for files with execute permission: EXEC 01;32 # List any file extensions like '.gz' or '.tar' that you would like ls # to colorize below. Put the extension, a space, and the color init string. # (and any comments you want to add after a '#') .cmd 01;31 # executables (bright green) .exe 01;31 .com 01;31 .btm 01;31 .bat 01;31 .sh 01;31 .csh 01;31 .tar 01;31 # archives or compressed (bright red) .tgz 01;31 .arj 01;31 .taz 01;31 .lzh 01;31 .zip 01;31 .z 01;31 .Z 01;31 .gz 01;31 .bz2 01;31 .bz 01;31 .tz 01;31 .rpm 01;31 .cpio 01;31 .jpg 01;35 # image formats .gif 01;35 .bmp 01;35 .xbm 01;35 .xpm 01;35 .png 01;35 .tif 01;35

06-13-2002, 07:03 PM	#5
thatch All Star Join Date: Jan 2002 Posts: 534	I agree, magenta is kind of ugly. But as long as it is different so my eyes catch it easily, that's all I really need. This reminds me of a change that was made to a portfolio page on Merrill Lynch's web site a few years back. It used to show gains and losses in green and red respectively. Then one day, no more, all black and much harder to quickly read. They later tossed me a survey about what I thought of their site and I told them about the change with the portfolio colors but they never changed it back. It couldn't have been something too difficult for them to do and so when they hype about listening to their clients and tailoring to their clients needs, I say HOGWASH!

06-13-2002, 07:29 PM	#6
mervTormel League Commissioner Join Date: Jan 2002 Posts: 5,536	black is a color, too. in fact, in reflective terms, black is all colors, white is the absence of color. or is that refractive? can't remember; if you have three vellums of primary colors, put them all together, you get black. so, all RGB guns on equals black? i think that's why powerbook users complain about black screen draining the battery? anyhow, i'm blathering. but, lastly, you'll begin to notice that all advertising is hype.

06-13-2002, 10:06 PM	#7
thatch All Star Join Date: Jan 2002 Posts: 534	Blathering with balderdash, ballyhoo and brouhaha. It's comforting to know that this is a place where we can, well, speak our minds. Yup, the hype of advertising is just that, all hype. Those hidden persuaders. But when a big firm comes and says, "How can we make our relationship with you better?", and then you tell them and they don't even give it another thought, I'd say they may need some better advertising. Anybody remember a movie from way back, about ten years or so ago, called Crazy People, starring Dudley Moore and Daryl Hanna? It told the story of an advertising executive, Dudley, who had a thought that it would be better to tell the truth in advertising. So, he constructed ads that way and his boss thought he'd really lost it when he saw some ad about Metamucil and needing to buy it if you wanted to go to the bathroom ever again. Then the boss sent him to a nut house for some R&R. And while he was in there, his ads made sales go through the roof, so the boss went to see him at the nut house and made everyone there a part of the new advertising team. A whole flock of loony birds. They all wrote truth in advertising types of ads which rocketed sales. And all they wanted in return was a night out to the opera and a car of their own choosing each which was eventually granted to them. Hilarious!

06-13-2002, 10:17 PM	#8
mervTormel League Commissioner Join Date: Jan 2002 Posts: 5,536	yeah, i remember that movie fondly. metamucil. it helps you go to the toilet. volvo. they're boxy, but they're good. it's disturbing that the advertising conduct has bled into the PR depts. "Hypermegacompuglobalnet. We'll solve your every problem." Hugh Lyon Sack Corporate Spokesperson "They solved my every problem!" Lyle Bedamned Staff Skeptic

06-14-2002, 03:14 AM	#9
thatch All Star Join Date: Jan 2002 Posts: 534	On the lighter side then, how about that ad that promised *jobs from women you never met before? Or the Porche ad? Too funny. But on the more serious note, I couldn't agree more. Buyer beware is the name in anybody's game now more than ever.