ENVIRONMENT

AFSUSER (+): Equivalent to the afsuser shell variable.
COLUMNS: The number of columns in the terminal. See Terminal management.
DISPLAY: Used by X Window System (see X(1)). If set, the shell does not set autologout (q.v.).
EDITOR: The pathname to a default editor. See also the VISUAL environment variable and the run-fg-editor editor command.
GROUP (+): Equivalent to the group shell variable.
HOME: Equivalent to the home shell variable.
HOST (+): Initialized to the name of the machine on which the shell is running, as determined by the gethostname(2) system call.
HOSTTYPE (+): Initialized to the type of machine on which the shell is running, as determined at compile time. This variable is obsolete and will be removed in a future version.
HPATH (+): A colon-separated list of directories in which the run-help editor command looks for command documentation.
LANG: Gives the preferred character environment. See Native Language System support.
LC_CTYPE: If set, only ctype character handling is changed. See Native Language System support.
LINES: The number of lines in the terminal. See Terminal management.
LS_COLORS: The format of this variable is reminiscent of the termcap(5) file format; a colon-separated list of expressions of the form "xx=string", where "xx" is a two-character variable name. The variables with their associated defaults are:

no 0: Normal (non-filename) text
fi 0: Regular file
di 01;34: Directory
ln 01;36: Symbolic link
pi 33: Named pipe (FIFO)
so 01;35: Socket
do 01;35: Door
bd 01;33: Block device
cd 01;32: Character device
ex 01;32: Executable file
mi (none): Missing file (defaults to fi)
or (none): Orphaned symbolic link (defaults to ln)
lc ^[[: Left code
rc m: Right code
ec (none): End code (replaces lc+no+rc)

You need to include only the variables you want to change from the default.

File names can also be colorized based on filename extension. This is specified in the LS_COLORS variable using the syntax "*ext=string". For example, using ISO 6429 codes, to color all C-language source files blue you would specify "*.c=34". This would color all files ending in .c in blue (34) color.

Control characters can be written either in C-style-escaped notation, or in stty-like ^-notation. The C-style notation adds ^[ for Escape, \_ for a normal space character, and ? for Delete. In addition, the ^[ escape character can be used to override the default interpretation of ^[, ^, : and =.

Each file will be written as <lc> <color-code> <rc> <filename> <ec>. If the <ec> code is undefined, the sequence <lc> <no> <rc> will be used instead. This is generally more convenient to use, but less general. The left, right and end codes are provided so you don't have to type common parts over and over again and to support weird terminals; you will generally not need to change them at all unless your terminal does not use ISO 6429 color sequences but a different system.

If your terminal does use ISO 6429 color codes, you can compose the type codes (i.e., all except the lc, rc, and ec codes) from numerical commands separated by semicolons. The most common commands 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

Not all commands will work on all systems or display devices.

A few terminal programs do not recognize the default end code properly. If all text gets colorized after you do a directory listing, try changing the no and fi codes from 0 to the numerical codes for your standard fore- and background colors.

MACHTYPE (+): The machine type (microprocessor class or machine model), as determined at compile time.
NOREBIND (+): If set, printable characters are not rebound to self-insert-command. See Native Language System support.
OSTYPE (+): The operating system, as determined at compile time.
PATH: A colon-separated list of directories in which to look for executables. Equivalent to the path shell variable, but in a different format.
PWD (+): Equivalent to the cwd shell variable, but not synchronized to it; updated only after an actual directory change.
REMOTEHOST (+): The host from which the user has logged in remotely, if this is the case and the shell is able to determine it. Set only if the shell was so compiled; see the version shell variable.
SHLVL (+): Equivalent to the shlvl shell variable.
SYSTYPE (+): The current system type. (Domain/OS only)
TERM: Equivalent to the term shell variable.
TERMCAP: The terminal capability string. See Terminal management.
USER: Equivalent to the user shell variable.
VENDOR (+): The vendor, as determined at compile time.
VISUAL: The pathname to a default full-screen editor. See also the EDITOR environment variable and the run-fg-editor editor command.

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