ANSI color in git is not displayed correctly

Question

Recently, I switched to SLES 11. I found a problem for git command. All the ANSI color could not be rendered. Instead, it shows the ANSI code like this:

*ESC

Answer 1

I had the same problem. But why I need to configure a git in one machine and no need on another? I want to fix the source of the problem because

git config --global core.pager "less -R"

looks like a workaround for me.

Answer 2

Try setting your LESS environment variable to include the -R option:

LESS=-R git grep ...

If this works, add export LESS=-R to your ~/.bashrc or ~/.profile or similar shell startup file.

   -R or --RAW-CONTROL-CHARS
          Like -r, but only ANSI "color" escape sequences are
          output in "raw" form.  Unlike -r, the screen
          appearance is maintained correctly in most cases.
          ANSI "color" escape sequences are sequences of the
          form:

               ESC [ ... m

          where the "..." is zero or more color specification
          characters