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Re: Newbie comments & queries



Brenda et al.

Thanks, I have the directory colouring OK now, as the user I had 
to do the bash_profile to get it running (which 'include's the 
bashrc)

I wanted to colorise the prompt. Also (down the road) I wanted to 
get some colour to joe (they have it yellow and red at the local 
university) as it is a bit bland with everything white on black. 
So ..... reading the Config-HOWTO has not helped as following his 
suggestions makes no change (have saved all original files as 
.old) Queries:

What is the difference between the files in /etc , /etc/skel , and 
/root ??  

/root/.bashrc
/root/.profile

/etc/bash.bashrc
/etc/profile

/etc/skel/.bash_profile
/etc/skel/.bashrc

Why are some files started with a dot (.) and others not?

Reading the config-HOWTO (where he gives sample files that are not 
the Debian ones) he plainly states in section 4.1  that

/etc/bashrc (which we do not have) (Not a dot file) and..
/etc/profile (Not a dot file)

can be edited for system-wide effects - ie as I understand it, 
root and all users will be affected by these settings unless they 
are elsewhere modified (like a user editing ditto-named files in 
his $home directory.

He implies in section 4. (and instructs at the very end in 4.15) 
that when finishing editing the _dot_ files that they are to be 
copied to /etc/skel . What for? Do they need to be there to be 
found, or is that a place for safe-keeping? And do they get copied 
as plain files or dot files?

My Gnu/Linux Bible is on the way (thank the Lord) but the bad news 
is that it is going to take 2 to 3 months surface mail to get 
here!

In the meantime I'll have to print out the Bash_Prompt-HOWTO.

Have been looking at emacs. 'nuff said.

The HOWTOs would be better if they were Debian specific, but they 
do assume that you are already in the know on most matters linux 
and the writers are often using redhat or something other than 
Debian.

Regards
Ian
   Ian Balchin
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