On Sun, 2007-03-11 at 11:17 -0400, Mike Burger wrote: > > Hi All; > > > > Just did some changes in my ~/.* ( dot files ) and started wondering why > > Linux uses dot files for its 'user' data. Its a small annoyance to have > > to specify .* each time I use them. The annoyance is primarily not > > because it's difficult but because it is odd -- different from anything > > else and data files get mixed (kinda) with my working documents. Why > > not just have a standard additional directory for 'config', or whatever > > name, to hold all the user application type data. Is the reason > > historical or is there a pragmatic purpose? > > This isn't specific to Linux. There are lots of files in Unix land whose > filenames begin with ".". In some cases, it's an application thing, in > other cases, it's kind of a standard thing. It helps keep certain files > from being immediately visible, and/or might be something specific to a > particular developer's style/taste. > > -- > Mike Burger > http://www.bubbanfriends.org > > Visit the Dog Pound II BBS > telnet://dogpound2.citadel.org or http://dogpound2.citadel.org > > To be notified of updates to the web site, visit: > > https://www.bubbanfriends.org/mailman/listinfo/site-update > > or send a blank email message to: > > site-update-subscribe@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx > Actually, every operating system I have worked on (9 at last count) has something similar. The only standard known directory for applications is the users home directory. Thus the "accepted practice" is to put user specific data in a hidden directory dedicated to the application in the users root directory. Thus each user can customize the application, and it doesn't affect the other users. Microsoft has butchered it somewhat by moving much of the initialization data for all applications into their registry (and other developers who are not multiuser savy also do this too much). But generically, having each applications data separate is a good thing, because it helps isolate the sources of problems, isolate file damage to a specific application (something the registry is notorious for breaking), and helps in troubleshooting user problems. I hope this aids you somewhat. Regards, Les H
