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Re: color text in terminals...



on Fri, Apr 12, 2002, Paul Mackinney (paul@mackinney.net) wrote:
> Karsten M. Self declaimed:

<...>

> > May I suggest:
> > 
> >    alias ls="ls --color=auto"
> > 
> > ...which toggles color on and off depending on whether stdout is a
> > terminal or a pipe.
> > 
> > > Personally I find it lurid and annoying :)
> > 
> > That was my initial take some years ago.  Now I find Unices which lack a
> > colorized ls depriving.  Color is a good cue.
> Indeed. It's been a long time since I used ls -F by default.
> 
> BTW: The option Karsten suggests is probably in your .bashrc right now
> but commented out. You might want to check .bash_profile also for other
> commented out configuration ideas. Personally, I like 
> 
> alias rm='/bin/rm -i'
> alias mv='/bin/mv -i'
> alias cp='/bin/cp -i'
> 
> Although there's a valid school of thought that this sets you up to make
> bad mistakes when you expect them to be set and they're not.

Count me soundly in that school.  I hate the default aliasing of these
commands on RH systems.

Crutches are for healing and therapy, they're not a standard transport
mode.  Aliasing the interactive options builds ***VERY*** bad
expectations and habits.

I use the raw forms of these commands.  I also keep regular backups, and
if I'm about to do anything permanent to a large set of files, make
damned sure:

  - I've got a copy elsewhere (even if this means shipping 300 MiB over
    a DSL line for three hours, as I did this week)

  - I know what I want to have happen to the files.

  - I've tested the procedure on a test case first.

When I punch <enter>, I mean what I say.

Peace.

-- 
Karsten M. Self <kmself@ix.netcom.com>           http://kmself.home.netcom.com/
 What Part of "Gestalt" don't you understand?
   Unless you are very rich and very eccentric, you will not enjoy the
   luxury of having a computer in your own home.
     -- Ed Yourdon, _Techniques of Program Structure and Design_, 1975

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