# terminal-colors.d

## NAME



           terminal-colors.d - configure output colorization for various
           utilities
    


## SYNOPSIS



           /etc/terminal-colors.d/_[[name][@term].][type]_
    


## DESCRIPTION



           Files in this directory determine the default behavior for
           utilities when coloring output.
    
           The _name_ is a utility name. The name is optional and when none is
           specified then the file is used for all unspecified utilities.
    
           The _term_ is a terminal identifier (the **TERM** environment variable).
           The terminal identifier is optional and when none is specified
           then the file is used for all unspecified terminals.
    
           The _type_ is a file type. Supported file types are:
    
           **disable**
               Turns off output colorization for all compatible utilities.
               See also the NO_COLOR environment variable below.
    
           **enable**
               Turns on output colorization; any matching **disable** files are
               ignored.
    
           **scheme**
               Specifies colors used for output. The file format may be
               specific to the utility, the default format is described
               below.
    
           If there are more files that match for a utility, then the file
           with the more specific filename wins. For example, the filename
           "@xterm.scheme" has less priority than "dmesg@xterm.scheme". The
           lowest priority are those files without a utility name and
           terminal identifier (e.g., "disable").
    
           The user-specific _$XDG_CONFIG_HOME/terminal-colors.d_ or
           _$HOME/.config/terminal-colors.d_ overrides the global setting.
    


## DEFAULT SCHEME FILES FORMAT



           The following statement is recognized:
    
              _name color-sequence_
    
           The _name_ is a logical name for the color sequence (for example:
           **error**). The names are specific to the utilities. For more details
           always see the **COLORS** section in the man page for the utility.
    
           The _color-sequence_ is a color name, ASCII color sequences, or
           escape sequences.
    
       **Color names**
           black, blink, blue, bold, brown, cyan, darkgray, gray, green,
           halfbright, lightblue, lightcyan, lightgray, lightgreen,
           lightmagenta, lightred, magenta, red, reset, reverse, and yellow.
    
       **ANSI color sequences**
           The color sequences are composed of sequences of numbers separated
           by semicolons. The most common codes are:
    
                   0   to restore default color
                   1   for brighter colors
                   4   for underlined text
                   5   for flashing text
                  30   for black foreground
                  31   for red foreground
                  32   for green foreground
                  33   for yellow (or brown) foreground
                  34   for blue foreground
                  35   for purple foreground
                  36   for cyan foreground
                  37   for white (or gray) foreground
                  40   for black background
                  41   for red background
                  42   for green background
                  43   for yellow (or brown) background
                  44   for blue background
                  45   for purple background
                  46   for cyan background
                  47   for white (or gray) background
    
           For example, to use a red background for alert messages in the
           output of dmesg(1), use:
    
             **echo 'alert 37;41' >> /etc/terminal-colors.d/dmesg.scheme**
    
       **Escape sequences**
           An escape sequence is necessary to enter a space, backslash,
           caret, or any control character anywhere in a string, as well as a
           hash mark as the first character. These C-style backslash-escapes
           can be used:
    
                  **\a** Bell (ASCII 7)
                  **\b** Backspace (ASCII 8)
                  **\e** Escape (ASCII 27)
                  **\f** Form feed (ASCII 12)
                  **\n** Newline (ASCII 10)
                  **\r** Carriage Return (ASCII 13)
                  **\t** Tab (ASCII 9)
                  **\v** Vertical Tab (ASCII 11)
                  **\?** Delete (ASCII 127)
                  **\_** Space
                  **\\** Backslash (\)
                  **\^** Caret (^)
                  **\#** Hash mark (#)
    
       **Comments**
           Lines where the first non-blank character is a **#**(hash) are
           ignored. Any other use of the hash character is not interpreted as
           introducing a comment.
    


## ENVIRONMENT



           **TERMINAL_COLORS_DEBUG** =all
               enables debug output.
    
           **NO_COLOR**
               if defined, this disables output colorization unless
               explicitly enabled by a command-line option. See
               https://no-color.org/ for more details. Supported since
               util-linux version 2.41.
    


## FILES



           _$XDG_CONFIG_HOME/terminal-colors.d_
    
           _$HOME/.config/terminal-colors.d_
    
           _/etc/terminal-colors.d_
    


## EXAMPLE



           Disable colors for all compatible utilities:
    
              **touch /etc/terminal-colors.d/disable**
    
           Disable colors for all compatible utils on a vt100 terminal:
    
              **touch /etc/terminal-colors.d/@vt100.disable**
    
           Disable colors for all compatible utils except dmesg(1):
    
              **touch /etc/terminal-colors.d/disable**
    
              **touch /etc/terminal-colors.d/dmesg.enable**
    


## COMPATIBILITY



           The **terminal-colors.d** functionality is currently supported by all
           util-linux utilities which provides colorized output. For more
           details always see the **COLORS** section in the man page for the
           utility.
    


## AVAILABILITY



           **terminal-colors.d** is part of the util-linux package which can be
           downloaded from Linux Kernel Archive
           <https://www.kernel.org/pub/linux/utils/util-linux/>. This page is
           part of the _util-linux_ (a random collection of Linux utilities)
           project. Information about the project can be found at 
           ⟨https://www.kernel.org/pub/linux/utils/util-linux/⟩. If you have a
           bug report for this manual page, send it to
           util-linux@vger.kernel.org. This page was obtained from the
           project's upstream Git repository
           ⟨git://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/utils/util-linux/util-linux.git⟩ on
           2025-08-11. (At that time, the date of the most recent commit that
           was found in the repository was 2025-08-05.) If you discover any
           rendering problems in this HTML version of the page, or you
           believe there is a better or more up-to-date source for the page,
           or you have corrections or improvements to the information in this
           COLOPHON (which is _not_ part of the original manual page), send a
           mail to man-pages@man7.org
    
    util-linux 2.42-start-521-ec46  2025-08-09           _TERMINAL-COLORS.D_(5)
    


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