dthree/cash

Grep and ls use colors by default

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#26 opened on Feb 25, 2016

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help wantednon-compliant behavior

Description

I noticed that cash's grep uses colored output by default. This doesn't seem to be a POSIX compliant default, however. On my Ubuntu system, if I type grep 'o' package.json, it's true that I'll see colored output, but that's because Ubuntu aliases grep by default.

You can see the actual default behavior of GNU grep if you type something like:

bash $ \grep 'o' package.json # Putting a backslash in front makes sure bash doesn't call an alias
bash $ alias grep # see what it's aliased to
alias grep='grep --color=auto'

I'm not sure if cash's default was by design (which wouldn't be the worst decision), or if it was just assumed this was the default.

I noticed the same thing with ls, which also doesn't use colors by default, it just so happens that it's commonly aliased to alias ls='ls --color=auto'.

Contributor guide

Tech stack
javascriptnodejsshell
Domain
cli
Issue type
bug
DifficultyEstimated implementation difficulty for a new contributor, from 1 for very small changes to 5 for expert-level work.
2
Estimated timeA rough time range for an experienced contributor to investigate, implement, test, and prepare a pull request.
1-3 hours
Activity statusHow available the issue appears right now: fresh, active, stale, blocked, or waiting on maintainer input.
stale
ClarityHow clearly the issue explains the expected change, acceptance criteria, and next step.
clear
Prerequisites
JavaScriptNode.jsfamiliarity with grep and ls commands
Newbie friendlinessA 1-100 score estimating how approachable this issue is for first-time contributors.
70
Research direction
Start by examining the implementation of the grep and ls commands in the cash source code (likely in `src/commands/grep.js` and `src/commands/ls.js`). Identify where default color settings are applied. Change the defaults to not use color unless explicitly requested via command line flags. Ensure the change is consistent with existing tests and adds tests if none exist. Since the issue is old, check if there are any recent changes or comments that may affect the approach.