TERMINAL-COLORS.D(5) File formats TERMINAL-COLORS.D(5) # [NAME](#NAME) terminal-colors.d - configure output colorization for various utilities # [SYNOPSIS](#SYNOPSIS) **/etc/terminal-colors.d/**\[*name.*|\[*name*]**@term.**]*type* # [DESCRIPTION](#DESCRIPTION) Files in this directory determine the default behavior for utilities when coloring output. The *name* is a utility name. The name is optional and when none is specified then the file is used for all unspecified utilities. The *term* is a terminal identifier (the **TERM** environment variable). The terminal identifier is optional and when none is specified then the file is used for all unspecified terminals. The *type* is a file type. Supported file types are: **disable** Turns off output colorization for all compatible utilities. See also the **NO\_COLOR** environment variable below. **enable** Turns on output colorization; any matching **disable** files are ignored. **scheme** Specifies colors used for output. The file format may be specific to the utility, the default format is described below. If there are more files that match for a utility, then the file with the more specific filename wins. For example, the filename *@xterm.scheme* has less priority than *dmesg@xterm.scheme*. The lowest priority are those files without a utility name and terminal identifier (e.g., "disable"). The user-specific *$XDG\_CONFIG\_HOME/terminal-colors.d* or *$HOME/.config/terminal-colors.d* overrides the global setting. # [DEFAULT SCHEME FILES FORMAT](#DEFAULT_SCHEME_FILES_FORMAT) The following statement is recognized: *name color-sequence* The *name* is a logical name for the color sequence (for example: **error**). The names are specific to the utilities. For more details always see the **COLORS** section in the man page for the utility. The *color-sequence* can be a color name, an ANSI color sequence, or an escape sequence. ## [Color names](#Color_names) Valid color names are: black, blink, blue, bold, brown, cyan, darkgray, gray, green, halfbright, lightblue, lightcyan, lightgray, lightgreen, lightmagenta, lightred, magenta, red, reset, reverse, and yellow. ## [ANSI color sequences](#ANSI_color_sequences) An ANSI color sequence is composed of sequences of numbers separated by semicolons. The most common codes 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 For example, to use a red background for alert messages in the output of [**dmesg**(1)](/man/os/util-linux/dmesg.1), use: **echo 'alert 37;41' >> /etc/terminal-colors.d/dmesg.scheme** ## [Escape sequences](#Escape_sequences) An escape sequence is needed to enter a space, backslash, caret, or any control character anywhere in a string, as well as a hash mark as the first character. These C-style backslash-escapes can be used: **\\a** Bell (ASCII 7) **\\b** Backspace (ASCII 8) **\\e** Escape (ASCII 27) **\\f** Form feed (ASCII 12) **\\n** Newline (ASCII 10) **\\r** Carriage Return (ASCII 13) **\\t** Tab (ASCII 9) **\\v** Vertical Tab (ASCII 11) **\\?** Delete (ASCII 127) **\\\_** Space **\\\\** Backslash (\\) **\\^** Caret (^) **\\\\#** Hash mark (#) ## [Comments](#Comments) Lines where the first non-blank character is a **#** (hash) are ignored. Any other use of the hash character is not interpreted as introducing a comment. # [ENVIRONMENT](#ENVIRONMENT) **TERMINAL\_COLORS\_DEBUG**=all enables debug output. **NO\_COLOR** if defined, this disables output colorization unless explicitly enabled by a command-line option. See <https://no-color.org/> for more details. Supported since util-linux version 2.41. # [FILES](#FILES) *$XDG\_CONFIG\_HOME/terminal-colors.d* *$HOME/.config/terminal-colors.d* */etc/terminal-colors.d* # [EXAMPLES](#EXAMPLES) Disable colors for all compatible utilities: **touch /etc/terminal-colors.d/disable** Disable colors for all compatible utils on a vt100 terminal: **touch /etc/terminal-colors.d/@vt100.disable** Disable colors for all compatible utils except [**dmesg**(1)](/man/os/util-linux/dmesg.1): **touch /etc/terminal-colors.d/disable** **touch /etc/terminal-colors.d/dmesg.enable** # [COMPATIBILITY](#COMPATIBILITY) The **terminal-colors.d** functionality is currently supported by all util-linux utilities which provide colorized output. For more details always see the **COLORS** section in the man page for the utility. # [REPORTING BUGS](#REPORTING_BUGS) For bug reports, use the *issue tracker* <https://github.com/util-linux/util-linux/issues>. # [AVAILABILITY](#AVAILABILITY) **terminal-colors.d** is part of the util-linux package which can be downloaded from *Linux Kernel Archive* <https://www.kernel.org/pub/linux/utils/util-linux/>. 2026-10-30 util-linux 2.42.4 --- Document: terminal-colors.d(5) from util-linux 2.42.4-r2 (Chainguard OS)