From: Hans-Bernhard Broeker Newsgroups: comp.os.msdos.djgpp Subject: Re: How can I get colors from ls to less Date: 27 Sep 2000 17:42:08 GMT Organization: Aachen University of Technology (RWTH) Lines: 28 Message-ID: <8qtbhg$5mt$1@nets3.rz.RWTH-Aachen.DE> References: <39D227C4 DOT 17D0A441 AT sensotech DOT at> NNTP-Posting-Host: acp3bf.physik.rwth-aachen.de X-Trace: nets3.rz.RWTH-Aachen.DE 970076528 5853 137.226.32.75 (27 Sep 2000 17:42:08 GMT) X-Complaints-To: abuse AT rwth-aachen DOT de NNTP-Posting-Date: 27 Sep 2000 17:42:08 GMT Originator: broeker@ To: djgpp AT delorie DOT com DJ-Gateway: from newsgroup comp.os.msdos.djgpp Reply-To: djgpp AT delorie DOT com Wolfgang Polzleitner wrote: > I wanted to use ls with the color option, i.e., > and pipe the resulting output into less, i.e., > ls --color=yes -l | less > The first part gives me nice colored output as expected, but 'less' does > not display colors anymore. Instead it displays the escape characters > like ESC[00m_bashrcESC[00m. The key reason for this is that 'less' doesn't generally trust arbitrary files to be displayable without causing some mayhem to the terminal (making it unusable until reboot, or whatever) --- it's its Unix legacy shining through, here. That's why it will display Escape sequance literally, rather than just executing them. You can switch that off by typing -r while less is running. If that still doesn't work, that would mean 'less' doesn't have the terminal escape sequence treatment built into it that 'ls' and 'bash' have --- I don't have one here to check it. -- Hans-Bernhard Broeker (broeker AT physik DOT rwth-aachen DOT de) Even if all the snow were burnt, ashes would remain.