whatis dotfiles
Dotfiles
Also known as: hidden files, config files
Configuration files in your home directory whose names start with a dot, like .bashrc and .gitconfig, and are hidden from plain ls.
What Are Dotfiles in Linux?
Any file whose name begins with . is hidden by ls unless you add -a. Programs traditionally store per-user settings this way, and newer ones follow the XDG spec and put config under ~/.config/.
Many people keep their dotfiles in a Git repository and use tools like GNU Stow or chezmoi to symlink or template them onto new machines.
Example
ls -a ~ | grep "^\."Learn more about Dotfiles
- Managing Dotfiles: Stow, chezmoi and the Bare Git Repo Three approaches to keeping your config in version control and getting it onto a new machine. Which handles per-host differences, which handles secrets, and why copying files around by hand always ends the same way.
- XDG Base Directories Explained: Why Your Home Folder Is a Mess The specification that sorts config from cache from data, what each variable actually means, which programs ignore it and what you can do about them, and why deleting the wrong directory loses your data.
- bashrc vs bash_profile vs profile: Which File to Put Things In Login shells read one set of files, interactive shells read another, and non-interactive shells read almost nothing. That is why your PATH works in a terminal and not in cron, and why your alias vanishes over ssh.