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  1. Introduction
  2. Abbreviated Boot
  3. The Boot Process
  4. Startup and Run Levels
  5. Initialization Scripts
  6. Runlevel Scripts
  7. Login Process
  8. Bash Shell
  9. Filesystems
  10. LILO, Kernel and Root Filesystem
  11. The Kernel
  12. Passwords, Users, Groups, and Quotas
  13. The Environment
  14. The /etc/sysconfig directory
  15. The /proc filesystem
  16. Process Control
  17. Devices
  18. Daemons Services
  19. Inetd and Network Services
  20. Programs and Libraries
  21. Security and PAM
  22. The printer services
  23. Mouse support with gpm
  24. Mail
  25. News
  26. UUCP
  27. LDAP
  28. NFS and RPC
  29. Samba, NetBIOS, WINS, nmbd
  30. Identd (auth)
  31. Telnet and FTP
  32. Apache web server
  33. DNS and named
  34. How X Works
  35. X Scripts
  36. Support for Text
  37. Keymapping for Programs
  38. Keycode Table
  39. Example Keymap File
  40. Terminfo Commands
  41. VT100 ESC sequences
  42. Kernel Revisited
  43. Configuration Files
  44. Credits

Linux Configuration Files

System configuration files

  • /etc/conf.getty - Used for system parameters for the getty program. Doesn't work with the mingetty program. See the section on the Login Process.
  • /etc/fstab - The filesystem table defining devices to be mounted when the system starts. See the section on filesystems.
  • /etc/inittab - The init program's configuration file. See the section on Startup and runlevels for information on this file. /etc/filesystems - Can be used to set the filesystem probe order when filesystems are mounted with the auto option. The nodev parameter is specified for filesystems that are not really locally mounted systems such as proc, devpts, and nfs systems.
  • /etc/limits - Limits users resources when a system has shadow passwords installed.
  • /etc/nologin - Prevents non-root users from logging onto the system if this file exists. See the section on the Login Process.
  • /etc/securetty - Controls the terminals that the root user can login on. See the section on the Login Process.
  • /etc/sysconfig/keyboard - Defines where the system will get its keymappings. See the section on Initialization Scripts and the /etc/sysconfig directory.
  • /etc/sysconfig/mouse - Defines the mouse configuration. See the section on the /etc/sysconfig directory.
  • /etc/sysconfig/network - Defines the general network configuration. See the section on Initialization Scripts and the /etc/sysconfig directory.
  • /etc/usertty - This file is used to impose special access restrictions on users. See the section on the Login Process.

Files where information is stored

  • /etc/group - The group file. See the section on Passwords, Users, Groups, and Quotas.
  • /etc/groups - May contain passwords that let a user join a group.
  • /etc/gshadow - Used to hold the group password and group administrator password information for shadow passwords. See the Shadow-Password-HOWTO.
  • /etc/login.defs - Used with shadow passwords to set initial PATH and other parameters including how often a user must change passwords and what is acceptable as a password. See the section on Passwords, Users, Groups, and Quotas.
  • /etc/mtab - The mount table for mounted devices. See the section on filesystems.
  • /etc/passwd - Saves user information and maybe the hashed password. See the section on Passwords, Users, Groups, and Quotas.
  • /etc/shadow - Further user information and user password and password management information is stored here. See the section on Passwords, Users, Groups, and Quotas.

Resource configuration files

  • bashrc
  • procmailrc
  • xinitrc

User configuration files

  • .hushlogin -When this file exists in the user's home directory, it will prevent check for mail, printing of the last login time, and the message of the day when the user logs in.
  • .bash_profile - A script that may be run by the bash shell. See the section on the bash shell.
  • .bash_login - A script that may be run by the bash shell. See the section on the bash shell.
  • .bashrc - A script that may be run by the bash shell. See the section on the bash shell.
  • .profile - A script that may be run by the bash shell. See the section on the bash shell.