color in messages

[Gerald S Stoller]

          It is possible to put color in the  FreeBSD  messages, I have
seen the font color change when I used 'ls -G'.  I would also like to
change the color of the background.  Unfortunately i have seen no
documentation on how to do this.  May i suggest that something brief be
written about this so people can start using color (ASAP) and send me a
copy, then do a more extensive version (if needed for a formal release.
         I tried to find special characters in the output of 'ls -G' by
piping it through a  tee  but it seems that  ls  checks on the
destination of its  STDOUT  and if it not directly to the screen it
removes the color modifying code from it.  Were i to have coded  ls , I
would leave the color modifying code always in the output and maybe
provide another utiliity that removes it through which one could pipe the
output if one wanted the color modifying code removed.
       Probably this question is better directed at the  XFree86  people
but I haven't gotten a good reply from them.