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MAC OS® X UNIX® Toolbox: 1000+ Commands for the Mac OS® X
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MAC OS® X UNIX® Toolbox: 1000+ Commands for the Mac OS® X

by Christopher Negus
March 2009
Intermediate to advanced
285 pages
5h 46m
English
Wiley
Content preview from MAC OS® X UNIX® Toolbox: 1000+ Commands for the Mac OS® X

Appendix C. Personal Configuration Files

In the home directory of every user account is a set of files and directories containing personal settings for that account. Because most configuration files and directories begin with a dot (.), you don't see them if you open a folder window to your home directory. Likewise, you typically need the -a option to ls to see those files when you list directory contents.

This appendix describes many of the dot files each user can work with on a Mac OS X system. After creating configuration files you like, you can, when appropriate, do such things as save them to /usr/share/skel (so every new user gets them) or save them if the user account moves to another machine.

Note

Some of the files described in this appendix won't exist until you either start the application associated with the files or create the files manually.

Bash shell files: Home directory files for storing and changing bash settings include the following:

  • .bash_profile: Commands added to this file are executed when you invoke bash as a login shell or use bash as your default shell.

  • .bashrc: Commands added to this file are executed when you start a bash shell that is not a login shell, and your default shell is not bash. (To have .bashrc sourced on login when your default shell is set to bash, add the following line ...

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ISBN: 9780470478363Purchase book