Dotfiles

“Dotfiles” are files that describe resources to programs that look for them. They begin with a period or “dot” (hence the name). In general, they are used for configuration of various software packages.

Dotfiles are hidden from ls, but ls -a shows them. Sometimes ls is aliased to ls –a.

Bash has configuration dotfiles: .bash_profile and .bashrc.

• if no .bash_profile is present it will read .profile
• .bash_profile is sourced only for login shell
• the default .bash_profile on our HPC system incorporates the .bashrc; otherwise on a general Linux system, .bashrc is not run for a login shell.

Dot “files” may also be, and often are, directories.

$ls -a
.   .bash_logout   .bashrc  .lesshst  shakespeare  .Xauthority
..  .bash_profile  data     .mozilla  .ssh