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Re: Newbie comments & queries



Ian Balchin wrote:

> 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.

This is something that Joe itself must support for it to work. I don't
know if it does or not. It's got nothing to do with configuring ls for
colour.


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

Read the 'INVOCATION' section of the bash man page for information
regarding the difference between .bash_profile, .bashrc and .profile for
login/non-login shells.

 
> /root/.bashrc
> /root/.profile

shell (bash) config files for the root user


> /etc/bash.bashrc
> /etc/profile

global shell (bash) config files (all users)


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

skeleton config files that are copied to a new account automatically
when one is created


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

Files starting with a dot are hidden from a regular 'ls'.

 
> 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.

That is correct. If you don't have these files, you can just create them
yourself.


> 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?

Copying them to /etc/skel will ensure that new accounts inherit the
changes automatically. They get copied with exactly the same filename.


Matthew



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