What does the “MISSING” directive mean in a dircolors file?

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I ran dircolors --print-database to show the default dircolors configuration and it included these lines (reformatted for clarity):



# symlink to nonexistent file, or non-stat'able file ...
ORPHAN 40;31;01

# ... and the files they point to
MISSING 00


I understand how a symlink can point to a nonexistent file. But how does it make sense to specify the color of the pointed-to file, since such a file can’t exist in the first place?







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    I ran dircolors --print-database to show the default dircolors configuration and it included these lines (reformatted for clarity):



    # symlink to nonexistent file, or non-stat'able file ...
    ORPHAN 40;31;01

    # ... and the files they point to
    MISSING 00


    I understand how a symlink can point to a nonexistent file. But how does it make sense to specify the color of the pointed-to file, since such a file can’t exist in the first place?







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      I ran dircolors --print-database to show the default dircolors configuration and it included these lines (reformatted for clarity):



      # symlink to nonexistent file, or non-stat'able file ...
      ORPHAN 40;31;01

      # ... and the files they point to
      MISSING 00


      I understand how a symlink can point to a nonexistent file. But how does it make sense to specify the color of the pointed-to file, since such a file can’t exist in the first place?







      share|improve this question











      I ran dircolors --print-database to show the default dircolors configuration and it included these lines (reformatted for clarity):



      # symlink to nonexistent file, or non-stat'able file ...
      ORPHAN 40;31;01

      # ... and the files they point to
      MISSING 00


      I understand how a symlink can point to a nonexistent file. But how does it make sense to specify the color of the pointed-to file, since such a file can’t exist in the first place?









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      asked Jun 7 at 5:02









      bdesham

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          With the -l option, ls displays the target of each symbolic link. If you specify a style for MISSING then this will be used to display the target of a broken link. (If you don’t specify a style, or use the default 00, then the target will be displayed with the same style as is used for the link name itself.)






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            With the -l option, ls displays the target of each symbolic link. If you specify a style for MISSING then this will be used to display the target of a broken link. (If you don’t specify a style, or use the default 00, then the target will be displayed with the same style as is used for the link name itself.)






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              With the -l option, ls displays the target of each symbolic link. If you specify a style for MISSING then this will be used to display the target of a broken link. (If you don’t specify a style, or use the default 00, then the target will be displayed with the same style as is used for the link name itself.)






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                With the -l option, ls displays the target of each symbolic link. If you specify a style for MISSING then this will be used to display the target of a broken link. (If you don’t specify a style, or use the default 00, then the target will be displayed with the same style as is used for the link name itself.)






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                With the -l option, ls displays the target of each symbolic link. If you specify a style for MISSING then this will be used to display the target of a broken link. (If you don’t specify a style, or use the default 00, then the target will be displayed with the same style as is used for the link name itself.)







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                answered Jun 7 at 5:02









                bdesham

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