How To Enable Color in Terminal on Mac OS X for Root - Tech Blog (wh)

This method will work for all users on your system, because you will be editing the system-wide profile and not a user-specific one. Step 1: Edit /etc/profile You will need to have root privileges to do this. You can open the file in TextEdit by going to File->Open and when the dialog pops up press Command-Shift-G to open the “Go to Location” dialog, then type in /etc/profile. Open the file called “profile” which should now be highlighted in your list of files. After opening that file, add the following two lines to the bottom: export CLICOLOR=1 export LSCOLORS=ExFxBxDxCxegedabagacad The colors can be configured as stated in the ls manual, which can be accessed in terminal via “ls man” Look for the section LSCOLORS. Here is what it says about the colors you can use to configure the display: LSCOLORS The value of this variable 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. 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 … Continue reading →