Personalize Your Linux Experience: Changing Directory Colors in RHEL 9 Linux Made Easy

Introduction: In the realm of Linux customization, even the smallest visual enhancements can make a significant impact on our overall experience. One such customization is changing the color of the DIR (directory) entries. In this blog post, we will delve into the art of transforming DIR colors using the powerful Vim editor in RHEL-9.2. Brace yourself for a journey of vibrant exploration as we guide you through the process of modifying the DIR_COLORS file to bring a splash of color to your Linux directory listings.

The current color of my Linux’s Dir

You can see below the color of my DIR with the use of ls.

the current color is red

We’ll do some changes in DIR_COLORS

Now this dir DIR_COLORS is in /etc/DIR_COLORS. we will be using Vim text editor for editing.
here is the syntax below

vim /etc/DIR_COLORS

Now this will open below, and here search for the DIR tag here you have to choose according to what you like here are some additional color tags.

               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

Now when you write the tags the color will also show up according to the tags.

Now when you are done press ESC then write “ :wq ”
NOTE: if some error show up, press :wq!

Now close the terminal and open a new one and press cmd LS then changes will be shown and these changes are permanent i.e will persist even after the reboot

As you can see color is changes

FUN TASK: you can also change the color of the folder or software or any other file with DIR_COLROS try editing them and customize your default Linux visualization

Conclusion

You can change the color of Files or Dir in Linux by editing into /etc/DIR_COLORS and then customizing it according to your likes and dislikes.

Guys this was all for today, keep coding and keep coloring.