First of all you need to know if you have a version of ls
which knows how to colourize properly. Try this command in a Linux text
console (although an xterm will do):
% ls ‐‐color
(the % is a shell prompt):
If you get an error message indicating that ls does not
understand the option, you need to install a new version of the GNU
fileutils package. If you do not have an appropriate upgrade package
for your distribution, just get the latest version from your GNU
mirror and install directly from source.
If you do not get an error message, you have a ls
which understands the command. Unfortunately, some of the earlier
versions included previously with Slackware (and possible others) were
buggy. The ls included with Redhat 4.1 is version 3.13 which is okay.
% ls ‐‐version
ls - GNU fileutils-3.13
If you ran the ``ls ‐‐ color'' command on a
Linux textbased console, the output should have been colourized
according to the defaults on the system, and you can now decide
whether there is anything you want to change.
If you ran it in an xterm, you may or you may not have seen any colour
changes. As with ls itself, the original xterm-program did
not have any support of colour for the programs running inside of it,
but recent versions do. If your xterm doesn't support colours, you
should get a new version as described at the end of this document. In
the meantime just switch to textmode and continue from there.