When
you log in to a host, the system and user's initialization files
for the shell are read and the tasks defined in the initialization
files are executed.
The home
directory of the user is where the user-specific initialization
files are stored.
The user-specific
initialization files, which provide a great deal of flexibility
to the user for customizing the environment, could be used to
perform some or all of the following:
- Set up
custom commands
- Set the
history for the shell
- Set default
permissions
- Tell the
shell where to look for new mail
- Set the
default terminal type used by vi
and other tools
- Define
the default printer
- Set the
default prompt
- Set the
command path to the user's specification
- Set noclobber
to prevent overwriting of files during redirection
The
user-specific initialization files
are normally set up as templates by the system administrator,
and then modified by the user.
