Unlike Ubuntu, Debian 6 Squeeze doesn’t have the colored text in the Terminal or SSH of folders, files and so on…
Doing a bit of research, I found the following solution:
1 – Edit the file /etc/bash.bashrc
$ vi /etc/bash.bashrc
2 – Add the following code to the file:
# System-wide .bashrc file for interactive bash(1) shells. # To enable the settings / commands in this file for login shells as well, # this file has to be sourced in /etc/profile. # If not running interactively, don't do anything [ -z "$PS1" ] && return # check the window size after each command and, if necessary, # update the values of LINES and COLUMNS. shopt -s checkwinsize # set variable identifying the chroot you work in (used in the prompt below) if [ -z "$debian_chroot" ] && [ -r /etc/debian_chroot ]; then debian_chroot=$(cat /etc/debian_chroot) fi use_color=false # Set colorful PS1 only on colorful terminals. # dircolors --print-database uses its own built-in database # instead of using /etc/DIR_COLORS. Try to use the external file # first to take advantage of user additions. Use internal bash # globbing instead of external grep binary. safe_term=${TERM//[^[:alnum:]]/?} # sanitize TERM match_lhs="" [[ -f ~/.dir_colors ]] && match_lhs="${match_lhs}$(<~/.dir_colors)" [[ -f /etc/DIR_COLORS ]] && match_lhs="${match_lhs}$(/dev/null \ && match_lhs=$(dircolors --print-database) [[ $'\n'${match_lhs} == *$'\n'"TERM "${safe_term}* ]] && use_color=true if ${use_color} ; then # Enable colors for ls, etc. Prefer ~/.dir_colors #64489 if type -P dircolors >/dev/null ; then if [[ -f ~/.dir_colors ]] ; then eval $(dircolors -b ~/.dir_colors) elif [[ -f /etc/DIR_COLORS ]] ; then eval $(dircolors -b /etc/DIR_COLORS) fi fi if [[ ${EUID} == 0 ]] ; then PS1='${debian_chroot:+($debian_chroot)}\[\033[01;31m\]\h\[\033[01;34m\] \W \$\[\033[00m\] ' else PS1='${debian_chroot:+($debian_chroot)}\[\033[01;32m\]\u@\h\[\033[01;34m\] \w \$\[\033[00m\] ' fi alias ls='ls --color=auto' alias grep='grep --colour=auto' else if [[ ${EUID} == 0 ]] ; then # show root@ when we don't have colors PS1='\u@\h \W \$ ' else PS1='\u@\h \w \$ ' fi fi # Try to keep environment pollution down, EPA loves us. unset use_color safe_term match_lhs # Commented out, don't overwrite xterm -T "title" -n "icontitle" by default. # If this is an xterm set the title to user@host:dir #case "$TERM" in #xterm*|rxvt*) # PROMPT_COMMAND='echo -ne "\033]0;${USER}@${HOSTNAME}: ${PWD}\007"' # ;; #*) # ;; #esac # enable bash completion in interactive shells if [ -f /etc/bash_completion ] && ! shopt -oq posix; then . /etc/bash_completion fi # if the command-not-found package is installed, use it if [ -x /usr/lib/command-not-found -o -x /usr/share/command-not-found ]; then function command_not_found_handle { # check because c-n-f could've been removed in the meantime if [ -x /usr/lib/command-not-found ]; then /usr/bin/python /usr/lib/command-not-found -- $1 return $? elif [ -x /usr/share/command-not-found ]; then /usr/bin/python /usr/share/command-not-found -- $1 return $? else return 127 fi } fi
3 – Close the Terminal (SSH), then open it again and check the results
Source: http://jbsteiner.com/article/enabling-colorful-bash-debian-squeeze