| Filename | Description |
| .bash_login | Look at "man bash". Treated by bash like .bash_profileif that doesn't exist. |
| .bash_logout | Look at "man bash".Sourced by bash login shells at exit. |
| .bash_profile | Sourced by bash login shells after /etc/profile. |
| .bash_history | The list of commands executed previously. |
| .bashrc | Look at "man bash". Sourced by bash non-login interactive shells (no other files are). Non-interactive shells source nothing unless BASH_ENV or ENV are set. |
| .emacs | Read by emacs at startup. |
| .forward | If this contains an e-mail address, then all mail to owner of ~ will be forwarded to that e-mail address. |
| .fvwmrc .fvwm2rc | Config files for fvwm and fvwm2 (the basic XWindow manager). |
| .hushlogin | Look at "man login". Causes a "quiet" login (no mail notice, last login info, or MOD). |
| .mail.rc | User init file for mail program. |
| .ncftp/ | Directory for ncftp program; contains bookmarks, log, macros, preferences, trace. See man ncftp. The purpose of ncftp is to provide a powerful and flexible interface to the Internet standard File Transfer Protocol. It is intended to replace the stock ftp program that comes with the system. |
| .profile | Look at "man bash". Treated by bash like ~/.bash_profile if that and .bash_login don't exist, and used by other Bourn- heritage shells too. |
| .pinerc | Pine configuration |
| .muttrc | Mutt configuration |
| .exrc | Configuration of vi can be controlled by this file. Example: set ai sm ruler Writing the above line in this file makes vi set the auto-indentation, matching brackets and displaying line number and rows- columns options. |
| .vimrc | Default "Vim" configuration file. Same as .exrc. |
| .gtkrc | GNOME Toolkit. |
| .kderc | KDE configuration. |
| .netrc | Default login names and passwords for ftp. |
| .rhosts | Used by the r-tools: rsh, rlogin, etc. Very weak security since host impersonation is easy. Must be owned by user (owner of ~/) or superuser. Lists hosts from which users may access this account. Ignored if it is a symbolic link. |
| .rpmrc | See "man rpm". Read by rpm if /etc/rpmrc is not present. |
| .signature | Message text that will be appended automatically to the mail sent from this account. |
| .twmrc | Config file for twm (The Window Manager). |
| .xinitrc | Read by X at startup (not by xinit script). Mostly
starts some progs. Example: exec /usr/sbin/startkde If the above line is present in this file, then the KDE Window Manager is started in when the startx command is issued from this account. |
| .xmodmaprc | This file is passed to the xmodmap program, and could be named anything (.Xmodmap and .keymap.km, for example). |
| .xserverrc | Run by xinit as the X server if it can find X to execute. ~/News/Sent-Message-IDs Default mail history file for gnus. |
| .Xauthority | Read and written by xdm program to handle authorization. See the X, xdm, and xauth man pages. |
| .Xdefaults,.Xdefaults-hostname | Read by X applications during startup on hostname. If the -hostname file can't be found, .Xdefaults is looked for. |
| .Xmodmap | Points to .xmodmaprc; Red Hat had (has) .xinitrc using this name. |
| .Xresources | Usually the name for the file passed to xrdb to load the X resources database, to avoid the need for applications to read a long .Xdefaults file. (~/.Xres has been used by some.) |
