Curious Sunday Morning Linux File System Question ??

[Fernando Apesteguía]

On 3/11/07, Mike Burger <mburger at bubbanfriends.org> 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?

Both, but just think that as you said, they are use for configuration
files. With a rm * you will not delete that files something that would
be quite bad for your account (gnome config, bash config, etc...)

Cheers
>
> 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
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