FreeBSD: Enable Colorized ls Output

FreeBSD has ls command to list directory contents. You can pass the -G option to the ls command to enable colorized output. For example, type the following command at shell prompt to get colorized output:

$ export TERM=xterm $ ls -G

You can create an alias (shell alias) as follows:

 
alias ls='ls –G'

You can store ls alias into ~/.bash_profile or ~/.profile or ~/.zshrc file. You may need to change the TERM variable to xterm-color, enter:

 
export TERM=xterm-color

 
export TERM=xterm

Again, put above commands in your shell profile file such as ~/.bash_profile or ~/.profile file.

More about LSCOLORS

The shell variable LSCOLORS describes what color to use for which attribute when colors are enabled with CLICOLOR. This string is a concatenation of pairs of the format fb, where f is the foreground color and b is the background color. To customize color you need modify LSCOLORS variable and other stuff. From the ls command man page:

                     The color designators are as follows:
                           a     black
                           b     red
                           c     green
                           d     brown
                           e     blue
                           f     magenta
                           g     cyan
                           h     light grey
                           A     bold black, usually shows up as dark grey
                           B     bold red
                           C     bold green
                           D     bold brown, usually shows up as yellow
                           E     bold blue
                           F     bold magenta
                           G     bold cyan
                           H     bold light grey; looks like bright white
                           x     default foreground or background
                     Note that the above are standard ANSI colors.  The actual
                     display may differ depending on the color capabilities of
                     the terminal in use.
                     The order of the attributes are as follows:
                           1.   directory
                           2.   symbolic link
                           3.   socket
                           4.   pipe
                           5.   executable
                           6.   block special
                           7.   character special
                           8.   executable with setuid bit set
                           9.   executable with setgid bit set
                           10.  directory writable to others, with sticky bit
                           11.  directory writable to others, without sticky
                                bit
                     The default is "exfxcxdxbxegedabagacad", i.e., blue fore-
                     ground and default background for regular directories,
                     black foreground and red background for setuid executa-
                     bles, etc.