14.9Run Command Only If TERM=my_term_type

Sometimes there are commands that one wants to execute at start-up only for a certain type of terminal. To do this for the stty command is no problem since one uses the redirection operator < to specify which terminal the command is for. But what about shell aliases or functions? You may want to make a function for the ls command so it will color-code the listing of directories only on color terminals or consoles.


For monochrome terminals you want the same function name (but a different function body) which will use symbols as a substitute for color-coding. Where to put such function definitions that are to be different for different terminals?

You may put them inside an "if" statement in /etc/profile which runs at startup each time one logs on. The conditional "if" statement defines certain functions, etc. only if the terminal is of a specified type.

Example for ls Function

While much of what this if statement does could be done in the configuration file for dircolors, here's an example for the case of the bash shell:

if [ "$TERM" = linux ]; then eval 'dircolors'; elif [ "$TERM" = vt220 ]; then ls () { command ls -F $* ; }# to export the function ls(): declare -xf ls else echo "From /etc/profile: Unknown terminal type $TERM" fi

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