Re: Setting default $PATH for all users
On Mon 11 Feb 2019 at 17:48:23 (-0000), Curt wrote:
> On 2019-02-11, Greg Wooledge <wooledg@eeg.ccf.org> wrote:
> > On Mon, Feb 11, 2019 at 05:26:34PM -0000, Curt wrote:
> >> I follow your logic. Give me everything in /etc/skel/ beginning with a dot.
> >> Which works. But apparently a dot is also something else. Like a directory.
> >>
> >> curty@einstein:~$ ls /etc/skel/.*
> >> /etc/skel/.bash_logout /etc/skel/.bashrc /etc/skel/.profile
> >>
> >> /etc/skel/.:
> >>
> >> /etc/skel/..:
> >>
> >> (etc.--the contents of /etc/
> >>
> >> I'm not sure what it all means.
> >
> > The shell glob .* expands to everything in the current directory that
> > begins with a dot. Which includes "." and "..".
> >
> > "." is the current directory. ".." is the parent directory. E.g. when
> > you type "cd .." it moves you "up" to the parent directory.
> >
> > Asking ls to show you .* is usually a bad idea, precisely because it
> > expands to a list which includes . and .. and does exactly what you
> > just described.
> >
> > This is why the ls command has -a and -A options.
>
> Thank you. That all makes perfect sense.
If you want just the dotfiles, then ls -dF .[^.]*
might be helpful. You don't need the -dF, but -d will prevent
it listing any .dotdirectories (important in your $HOME) and
-F will reveal those directories (when you're not using -l)
and other non-regular-files.
Cheers,
David.
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