Why would a file have NO color code?

Question

Two files in one of my directories are rendered as gray on PuTTy.

Running ls -l --color=always | less shows a list with most file names preceded by ESC[01;32m

But those two files do not. The filename is preceded by the timestamp, just as in a regular ls -l command. What causes this?

Can you show us? (an image is appropriate in this case) – ctrl-alt-delor May 02 '19 at 21:45 — ctrl-alt-delor, May 02 '19 at 21:45

ctrl-alt-delor · Accepted Answer · 2019-05-02T22:06:37.240

0

Probably nothing special about it. On my system Debian (no customisation), most files are un-coloured. The ones that are coloured are: directories, symbolic links, executable, device-files, named-pipes, and a few others such as archives (tar, zip, etc.).

edited May 02 '19 at 22:06

answered May 02 '19 at 21:49

ctrl-alt-delor

27,473
9
58
102

Actually, the source of confusion is more likely file-permissions (executable vs non-executable). – Thomas Dickey May 02 '19 at 22:04
It looks like executable-vs-not accounted for the difference in my case. Thanks! – Lenoxus May 03 '19 at 13:14

Why would a file have NO color code?

1 Answers1