dot file

dot file

(operating system, convention)A Unix application programconfiguration file. On Unix, files named with a leading dotare not normally shown in directory listings. Many programsdefine one or more dot files in which startup or configurationinformation may be optionally recorded; a user can customisethe program's behaviour by creating the appropriate file inthe current or home directory.

Dot files tend to proliferate - with every nontrivialapplication program defining at least one, a user's homedirectory can be filled with scores of dot files, without theuser really being aware of it. Common examples are .profile,.cshrc, .login, .emacs, .mailrc, .forward, .newsrc, .plan,.rhosts, .sig, .xsession.

See also profile, rc file.

dot file

A Unix file name that begins with a period, which designates the file as hidden from normal view. In Unix, the ls command displays the file names in the current folder. The -a switch shows the hidden files with dot prefixes.

Show Hidden Dot Files
In this Mac OS X example, the ls commands (blue arrows) display the contents of the root directory. The -a parameter in the bottom example shows all the dot files that were hidden in the top example.