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### 5.48 Why these strange escape sequences from `ls` from the Shell mode?

In many systems, `ls` is aliased to ‘`ls --color`’, which prints using ANSI color escape sequences. Emacs version 21.1 and later includes the `ansi-color` package, which lets Shell mode recognize these escape sequences. In Emacs 23.2 and later, the package is enabled by default; in earlier versions you can enable it by typing `M-x ansi-color-for-comint-mode` in the Shell buffer, or by adding `(add-hook 'shell-mode-hook 'ansi-color-for-comint-mode-on)` to your init file.

In Emacs versions before 21.1, the `ansi-color` package is not included. In that case, you need to unalias `ls` for interactive shells running in Emacs; this can be done by checking the `EMACS` variable in the environment.