How To Change Background Color In Linux Terminal

You tin add color to your Linux final using special ANSI encoding settings, either dynamically in a terminal command or in configuration files, or you lot tin employ ready-made themes in your terminal emulator. Either way, the nostalgic green or amber text on a blackness screen is wholly optional. This article demonstrates how you can brand Linux as colorful (or every bit monochromatic) every bit you want.

Concluding capabilities

Modernistic systems usually default to at least xterm-256color, but if you lot try to add together color to your terminal without success, y'all should check your TERM setting.

Historically, Unix terminals were literally that: physical points at the literal endpoint (termination) of a shared computer system where users could type in commands. They were unique from the teletype machines (which is why we still have /dev/tty devices in Linux today) that were often used to effect commands remotely. Terminals had CRT monitors built-in, and then users could sit at a final in their office to interact directly with the mainframe. CRT monitors were expensive—both to manufacture and to control; it was easier to have a computer spit out crude ASCII text than to worry about anti-aliasing and other niceties that modernistic computerists have for granted. Even so, developments in engineering happened fast even so, and it quickly became credible that as new video display terminals were designed, they needed new capabilities to be available on an optional ground.

For instance, the fancy new VT100 released in 1978 supported ANSI colour, and then if a user identified the terminal type as vt100, and then a calculator could evangelize color output, while a basic series device might not accept such an option. The aforementioned principle applies today, and it'due south prepare by the TERM environment variable. Yous tin bank check your TERM definition with echo:

                      $              echo              $TERM              
              xterm-256color

The obsolete (merely still maintained on some systems in the involvement of backward compatibility) /etc/termcap file defined the capabilities of terminals and printers. The modernistic version of that is terminfo, located in either /etc or /usr/share, depending on your distribution. These files listing features bachelor in different kinds of terminals, many of which are divers by historical hardware: there are definitions for vt100 through vt220, as well every bit for modern software emulators like xterm and Xfce. Most software doesn't intendance what last type you lot're using; in rare instances, y'all might get a warning or fault about an incorrect concluding type when logging into a server that checks for uniform features. If your last is fix to a profile with very few features, just yous know the emulator you employ is capable of more, and so you tin can change your setting by defining the TERM environment variable. You can practice this by exporting the TERM variable in your ~/.bashrc configuration file:

                                    export              TERM=xterm-256color

Save the file, and reload your settings:

                                    $                            source              ~/.bashrc

ANSI color codes

Modernistic terminals have inherited ANSI escape sequences for "meta" features. These are special sequences of characters that a concluding interprets equally actions instead of characters. For instance, this sequence clears the screen upwards to the next prompt:

                                    $                            printf              `\033[2J`

It doesn't clear your history; it just clears up the screen in your last emulator, so it's a safe and demonstrative ANSI escape sequence.

ANSI also has sequences to prepare the colour of your last. For case, typing this code changes the subsequent text to green:

                                    $                            printf              '\033[32m'

Equally long as you see color the same way your computer does, you could apply color to assist you retrieve what organization you're logged into. For case, if you regularly SSH into your server, you can fix your server prompt to green to help you differentiate it at a glance from your local prompt. For a light-green prompt, utilize the ANSI code for green earlier your prompt character and cease information technology with the code representing your normal default color:

                                    export              PS1=`              printf              "\033[32m$ \033[39m"              `

Foreground and background

You lot're not limited to setting the colour of your text. With ANSI codes, you tin can control the groundwork colour of your text likewise as do some rudimentary styling.

For instance, with \033[4m, you can cause text to be underlined, or with \033[5m you can set up it to blink. That might seem silly at start—because y'all're probably not going to set up your terminal to underline all text and blink all day—but it tin exist useful for select functions. For example, y'all might set up an urgent mistake produced by a shell script to blink (every bit an alert for your user), or you might underline a URL.

For your reference, hither are the foreground and groundwork color codes. Foreground colors are in the xxx range, while groundwork colors are in the 40 range:

Color	Foreground	Background
Black	\033[30m	\033[40m
Carmine	\033[31m	\033[41m
Green	\033[32m	\033[42m
Orangish	\033[33m	\033[43m
Blue	\033[34m	\033[44m
Magenta	\033[35m	\033[45m
Cyan	\033[36m	\033[46m
Low-cal gray	\033[37m	\033[47m
Fallback to distro's default	\033[39m	\033[49m

There are some additional colors available for the background:

Colour	Background
Dark gray	\033[100m
Light carmine	\033[101m
Calorie-free dark-green	\033[102m
Yellow	\033[103m
Light blue	\033[104m
Light purple	\033[105m
Teal	\033[106m
White	\033[107m

Permanency

Setting colors in your terminal session is only temporary and relatively unconditional. Sometimes the outcome lasts for a few lines; that's because this method of setting colors relies on a printf argument to gear up a fashion that lasts only until something else overrides it.

The way a terminal emulator typically gets instructions on what colors to use is from the settings of the LS_COLORS surroundings variable, which is in plow populated by the settings of dircolors. You tin can view your current settings with an echo statement:

                      $              repeat              $LS_COLORS              
              rs=0:di=38;5;33:ln=38;v;51:mh=00:pi=40;
              38;v;11:so=38;5;13:do=38;v;5:bd=48;5;
              232;38;5;xi:cd=48;5;232;38;5;iii:or=48;
              5;232;38;5;ix:mi=01;05;37;41:su=48;five;
              196;38;5;15:sg=48;5;eleven;38;5;xvi:ca=48;five;
              196;38;five;226:tw=48;5;10;38;5;xvi:ow=48;5;
              [...]

Or you can use dircolors straight:

                      $              dircolors              --impress-database              
              [...]              
              # image formats              
              .jpg 01;35              
              .jpeg 01;35              
              .mjpg 01;35              
              .mjpeg 01;35              
              .gif 01;35              
              .bmp 01;35              
              .pbm 01;35              
              .tif 01;35              
              .tiff 01;35              
              [...]

If that looks cryptic, information technology'due south considering it is. The offset digit after a file blazon is the attribute code, and it has six options:

00 none
01 bold
04 underscore
05 blink
07 reverse
08 curtained

The next digit is the color code in a simplified form. You lot tin get the colour lawmaking past taking the final digit of the ANSII code (32 for green foreground, 42 for green background; 31 or 41 for red, and so on).

Your distribution probably sets LS_COLORS globally, so all users on your system inherit the same colors. If you lot want a customized set of colors, you tin use dircolors for that. First, generate a local copy of your color settings:

                                    $                            dircolors              --print-database              >              ~/.dircolors

Edit your local list as desired. When you're happy with your choices, salve the file. Your color settings are only a database and can't exist used directly by ls, but y'all can utilize dircolors to become shellcode you can utilize to set LS_COLORS:

                      $              dircolors              --bourne-shell              ~/.dircolors              
              LS_COLORS='rs=0:di=01;34:ln=01;36:mh=00:
                pi=40;33:and so=01;35:exercise=01;35:bd=twoscore;33;01:
                cd=40;33;01:or=xl;31;01:mi=00:su=37;41:
                sg=30;43:ca=30;41:tw=30;42:ow=34;
                [...]
                export LS_COLORS

Copy and paste that output into your ~/.bashrc file and reload. Alternatively, you lot can dump that output directly into your .bashrc file and reload.

                      $              dircolors              --bourne-shell              ~/.dircolors              >>              ~/.bashrc
              $              source              ~/.bashrc

You lot can also make Bash resolve .dircolors upon launch instead of doing the conversion manually. Realistically, you're probably not going to change colors often, so this may be overly ambitious, but it's an selection if you plan on irresolute your color scheme a lot. In your .bashrc file, add this rule:

                                    [              [              -e              $HOME              /.dircolors              ]              ]              &&              eval              "`dircolors --sh $HOME/.dircolors`"

Should y'all have a .dircolors file in your home directory, Bash evaluates it upon launch and sets LS_COLORS accordingly.

Color

Colors in your last are an easy fashion to give yourself a quick visual reference for specific information. However, you might non want to lean on them too heavily. After all, colors aren't universal, then if someone else uses your organisation, they may not see the colors the same way you do. Furthermore, if you use a variety of tools to interact with computers, you might besides find that some terminals or remote connections don't provide the colors yous expect (or colors at all).

Those warnings aside, colors can be useful and fun in some workflows, so create a .dircolor database and customize it to your heart'due south content.