I’m new to OS X, having just gotten a Mac after working with Ubuntu Linux for some time. Among the many things I’m trying to figure out is the absence of colors in my terminal window – like the ones that are shown (on Linux) when running ls -la or git status…
I just can’t figure out how to activate colors in my shell.
Here is a solution I’ve found to enable the global
terminal colors.
Edit your .bash_profile (since OS X 10.8) — or (for 10.7 and earlier): .profile or .bashrc or /etc/profile (depending on availability) — in your home directory and add following code:
export CLICOLOR=1
export LSCOLORS=GxFxCxDxBxegedabagaced
CLICOLOR=1 simply enables coloring of your terminal.
LSCOLORS=... specifies how to color specific items.
After editing .bash_profile, start a Terminal and force the changes to take place by executing:
source ~/.bash_profile
Then go to Terminal > Preferences, click on the Profiles tab and then the Text subtab and check Display ANSI Colors.
Verified on Sierra (May 2017).