Tutorial by Examples: dotfiles

A dotfile is a file whose names begin with a .. These are normally hidden by ls and not listed unless requested. For example the following output of ls: $ ls bin pki The -a or --all option will list all files, including dotfiles. $ ls -a . .ansible .bash_logout .bashrc .lesshst ...

$ cp .vimrc{,.bak} This expands into the command cp .vimrc .vimrc.bak.

In Unix, files and directories beginning with a period usually contain settings for a specific program/a series of programs. Dot files are usually hidden from the user, so you would need to run ls -a to see them. An example of a dot file is .bash_history, which contains the latest executed commands...