ls: unrecognized/unknown option «--color [»

[JohnD]

I wanted to list files/folders in a directory with

Code:

ls

and got this 

Code:

ls: unrecognized option «--color [»

Why am I seeing this?

Often there are predefined aliases. For Example in my system there are for example those aliases:

Code:

alias cd..='cd ..'
alias c~='cd ~'
alias la='ls -a | grep '\''^\.'\'' | column'
alias ls='ls --color'

In many cases those aliases are defined in the file "[tt]home/USERNAME/.bashrc[/tt]" or in "[tt]/home/USERNAME/.bash_aliases[/tt]". (Of course you have to replace "USERNAME" by your account name.)

In my opinion there might be a typo in the definition of the alias for "ls". You might test it by typing:

Code:

alias ls='ls --color:always'
ls

If now you get no error message as before, it should be a typo in the alias definition.

But to make this change permanent you have to edit the file ".bashrc" (or ".bash_aliases"), in which the alias is wrong defined.

HTH