Customizing ls using aliases

Common usage of the ls command:

alias ll="ls -l"
alias la="ls -a"

Occasionally, you will see

alias l=ls

You can also alias commands to extended versions of themselves: alias ls="ls -F -color=auto"
This forces ls to color-code files by type, if output is going to a terminal. The colors used by ls can be customized by setting the LS_COLORS environment variable in the .bashrc file. For example, the following is a good setting for terminals with white or light background.

# setup for color ls
LS_COLORS='no=00:fi=00:di=01;34:ln=01;35:pi=40;32:so=01;40;35:bd=40;33;01:cd=40;33;01:\
or=40;31;01:ex=07;32:*.class=01;31:*.tar=01;31:*.tgz=01;31:*.arj=01;31:\
*.taz=01;31:*.lzh=01;31:*.zip=01;31:*.z=01;31:*.Z=01;31:*.gz=01;31:*.deb=01;31:\
*.jpg=01;35:*.gif=01;35:*.bmp=01;35:*.ppm=01;35:*.tga=01;35:*.xbm=01;35:*.xpm=01;35:\
*.tiff=01;35:*.mpg=01;37:*.avi=01;37:*.gl=01;37:*.dl=01;37:*.tex=01;31:'
export LS_COLORS