Hi Mikkel, Thanks for your quick response. On Sun, 2007-03-11 at 10:39 -0500, Mikkel L. Ellertson wrote: > William Case wrote: > > Hi All; [snip] > This is the way Linux hides files and directories. You will notice > that they do not show up in a normal ls listing, or in the file > selection window of most programs. If you have your file manager set > up not to show hidden files/directories, they will not show up there > ether. I understand the above comments. The reason I included the bit about being a newru was that I was looking for a deeper explanation than the rudimentary. For example, why would Linux/Unix choose to hide files when there is the simple option of placing them in a standard sub-directory? That sub-directory could be 'dotted' if a strong need to hide things was felt. I am not actually proposing this but: for neatness's sake couldn't I create a sub-directory in /home, called 'userconfig' or '.userconfig', put all my dot files in there? Of course, I would then have to change *all* my applications to look in 'userconfig' to find the config, *rc, etc. data. I asked because, the use of dot files has an ancient historical feel to it, but I wanted to check if there might be some overriding practical/technical reason as well, and I asked because it was a quiet Sunday Morning and I wasn't ready to get down to real work yet. -- Regards Bill