|
Startup and customization files provide an easy
way to customize your login session. These customization files,
which begin with a dot (.) as the first character, are
referred to as dotfiles. They are automatically referenced by
programs. For example, the .pinerc file is used by the
Pine program to set up default mail folders, printers, editor
and so forth. It is important to make modifications with extreme
care and never to delete any of these files!
Important dotfiles that exist in your account
include .login and .cshrc. The .login file
is sourced whenever you first log into a UNIX workstation. This
file contains shell commands that may print news messages, set
up initial terminal specifications, set variables, or execute
programs. The .cshrc file is sourced every time a shell
is started. This is helpful for setting local environment
variables. All of the standard CAEN dotfiles all reside in the
/usr/local/skel directory and have the prefix std. To
make sure you have all of CAEN’s dotfiles in your account you
can issue the redot (or /usr/caen/bin/redot)
command.
You can customize your X Windows environment by
modifying the following three files in your Public
directory: .xsession, .Xresources and .mailcap.
The .xsession file sets up the windows when you first log
in. The .Xresources file is used to set resource values
(such as colors and scroll bars). If these files do not exist,
they can be copied from the /usr/local/skel directory to
your Public directory. The .mailcap file sets up
your email environment.
You also will need to make sure there is a link
from your home directory to each of these dotfiles. Type ls
-la to see if the links exist. To create a link if one does
not exist, issue the ln command from your home directory
as follows:
ln -s Public/.Xresources .Xresources
Alternatively, you can issue the redot command to
copy the standard files to your Public directory and
create the necessary links from your home directory. |