[NBLUG/talk] The Linux "invisible" files

Simeon ben Nevel snevel at sonic.net
Sun Aug 17 22:08:01 PDT 2003


On Sun, 17 Aug 2003, Todd Cary wrote:

> When I create a directory within the "home" directory that gets used by
> Samba and FTP, there are quite a few "." files or Linux "invisible"
> files.  Is there documentation on the meaning of each of these?
>
> Also, when I go to a site managed by an ISP, I again notice quite a few
> "." dot files.  Is there a standard applied here?

The so called "dot files" are typically used to store configuration
information for various bits of software you use, i.e.

	.procmailrc controls procmail for mail filtering
	.pinerc has customization settings for the pine mail/news reader

There's  nothing special about them.

There's. also simply:

	.  which is an alias for the current directory and
       ..  which is an alias for the parent directory

so "cd .." moves you up on directory.

Simeon




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