This isn’t a Ruby thing but many of us spend a lot of time in Terminal.app, and I suspect few of you have taken the time to both changing your LSCOLORS, the setting which affects what colors ls uses when in color mode.
Enable Colors in ls
In order for ls to use colors at all, you need to set up an alias to turn colors on. To do this, open (or create) .profile file in your home directory using your favorite text editor and add:
alias ls="ls -G"
Now open a new Terminal window and type ls. You will see colors, hurray!
Make Colors Linux-like
If you’re used to Linux-like colors, you will appreciate this setting. This is what I use and it works particularly well on dark Terminal backgrounds (I use the “Pro” theme). I also check off “Use bright colors for bold text” under Terminal > Preferences > Settings. Again, add this to your .profile:
export LSCOLORS="ExGxBxDxCxEgEdxbxgxcxd"
Customize Your Colors
If you’re interested in fully customizing your LSCOLORS variable, you’ll find more below the fold.
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