There have been some discussions lately about Linux/Windows and permissions as they relate to security. Here's a tip that I'm not even sure where I found. When operating at the command line I find it helpful to have the terminal colorize things for me. If I sudo su to get past some permission limitations a different color prompt reminds me that I am currently root. It also helps when you are following script logic. In Linux, all of the terminals are controlled by your default shell, which in general will be /bin/bash. To change the behavior of your terminal you need to change bash. In your /home/<user> folder there is a hidden file: .bashrc. It is a script that bash runs whenever you start it interactively. If you started with a headless server it probably has the color commands in there but commented out. For a more colorful and enlightening terminal user experience, remove the # from in front of lines that look like this:
if [ -n "$force_color_prompt" ]; then
if [ -x /usr/bin/tput ] && tput setaf 1 >&/dev/null; then
# We have color support; assume it's compliant with Ecma-48
# (ISO/IEC-6429). (Lack of such support is extremely rare, and such
# a case would tend to support setf rather than setaf.)
color_prompt=yes
else
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
# enable color support of ls and also add handy aliases
if [ -x /usr/bin/dircolors ]; then
test -r ~/.dircolors && eval "$(dircolors -b ~/.dircolors)" || eval "$(dircolors -b)"
alias ls='ls --color=auto'
alias dir='dir --color=auto'
alias vdir='vdir --color=auto'
alias grep='grep --color=auto'
alias fgrep='fgrep --color=auto'
alias egrep='egrep --color=auto'
fi
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
You may want to follow this instruction instead of editing the main .bashrc file:
# Alias definitions.
# You may want to put all your additions into a separate file like
# ~/.bash_aliases, instead of adding them here directly.
# See /usr/share/doc/bash-doc/examples in the bash-doc package.
if [ -f ~/.bash_aliases ]; then
. ~/.bash_aliases
fi
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
If you are wondering what ~ is, that is shorthand for the path to your home folder. In my case ~ means:
/home/mikaluch
If you are wondering what mikaluch means my name is Michael but my Italian grandfather always called me Mikaluch! with great gusto. I don't know. We checked. As far as I can tell it is not Italian for Michael.
if [ -n "$force_color_prompt" ]; then
if [ -x /usr/bin/tput ] && tput setaf 1 >&/dev/null; then
# We have color support; assume it's compliant with Ecma-48
# (ISO/IEC-6429). (Lack of such support is extremely rare, and such
# a case would tend to support setf rather than setaf.)
color_prompt=yes
else
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
# enable color support of ls and also add handy aliases
if [ -x /usr/bin/dircolors ]; then
test -r ~/.dircolors && eval "$(dircolors -b ~/.dircolors)" || eval "$(dircolors -b)"
alias ls='ls --color=auto'
alias dir='dir --color=auto'
alias vdir='vdir --color=auto'
alias grep='grep --color=auto'
alias fgrep='fgrep --color=auto'
alias egrep='egrep --color=auto'
fi
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
You may want to follow this instruction instead of editing the main .bashrc file:
# Alias definitions.
# You may want to put all your additions into a separate file like
# ~/.bash_aliases, instead of adding them here directly.
# See /usr/share/doc/bash-doc/examples in the bash-doc package.
if [ -f ~/.bash_aliases ]; then
. ~/.bash_aliases
fi
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
If you are wondering what ~ is, that is shorthand for the path to your home folder. In my case ~ means:
/home/mikaluch
If you are wondering what mikaluch means my name is Michael but my Italian grandfather always called me Mikaluch! with great gusto. I don't know. We checked. As far as I can tell it is not Italian for Michael.
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