If you have a new distribution of Linux, do these modifications to these files in your home directory. They take effect after next login.

~/.bashrc:
    alias ls="ls ‐‐color"

~/.cshrc:
    alias ls 'ls ‐‐color'
    

That’s it!

You may also want to do an « eval `dircolors $HOME/.colourrc` », to get your own colours. This file is created with « dircolors -p >$HOME/.colourrc » and is well commented for further editing.