Dot (.) files are hidden files/folders. Config files, for the most part, are located in the users home/.config folder. You should be spending very little time, if any, in that folder.
this post was submitted on 11 Dec 2023
15 points (94.1% liked)
Linux
46745 readers
1860 users here now
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Linux is a family of open source Unix-like operating systems based on the Linux kernel, an operating system kernel first released on September 17, 1991 by Linus Torvalds. Linux is typically packaged in a Linux distribution (or distro for short).
Distributions include the Linux kernel and supporting system software and libraries, many of which are provided by the GNU Project. Many Linux distributions use the word "Linux" in their name, but the Free Software Foundation uses the name GNU/Linux to emphasize the importance of GNU software, causing some controversy.
Rules
- Posts must be relevant to operating systems running the Linux kernel. GNU/Linux or otherwise.
- No misinformation
- No NSFW content
- No hate speech, bigotry, etc
Related Communities
Community icon by Alpár-Etele Méder, licensed under CC BY 3.0
founded 5 years ago
MODERATORS
You should be spending very little time, if any, in that folder.
Hahaha, tell that to https://lemmy.ml/c/unixporn
Hi there! Looks like you linked to a Lemmy community using a URL instead of its name, which doesn't work well for people on different instances. Try fixing it like this: [email protected]
You should be spending very little time, if any, in that folder.
I know what you mean, but man if this isn't the exact opposite of me. If the program doesn't store its config here I'm close to crusading.
~/.config really makes life a lot easier when backing up your dotfiles.
The standard is to have dotfiles in your ~/.config folder, however not all apps follow that.
Some apps dump their config files in your home, others only have files in /etc or /usr and you have to copy them yourself to modify them
If you use one of the standard graphical desktops (Gnome, KDE, ...) you don't need to explore all of the config files. The most important settings should be in a settings program.
And programs should (mostly) come with sane default settings anyways. Debian adds a few. So the usual way (for beginners) is to start with the defaults and change around stuff once you want to customize something, and starting with the software you use the most (like an text editor, ...). The standard GUI software (like your browser, LibreOffice) has GUI settings dialogues anyways.
It doesn't need to be (specifically) configuration files -- you can add scripts as well. A script that installs every package you need and remove/mask the ones you do not, for example. Which can make a 30 minute long experience become a 3 one.
You don't have to edit the config files, if that's what you mean. Generally speaking you should never need to edit any of them except in very unusual cases.
The config files are generally specific to apps and they can get transferred between distributions.
It's actually common practice to take your /home with you too a new distro, it to put it on a separate partition so it's still there after you reinstall the system partition. The app versions might be a little different and sometimes they're may be small glitches when you do that but for the most part it works very well.
The only dot dirs you might care about is .cache which you may want to empty every once in a while (if you run out of space on /home). There's also trash, if you use that, but that usually has its own widget on the desktop so you can explore or empty it.
Actually, there are many programs that are designed to be configured by editing the config files. It's not a "very unusual" case.
I wouldn't say there's a place to start. Once you start using programs that are configured through config files, learn about those config files in particular. Eventually, you might find that you prefer editing config files even for programs that have GUI settings - then you dive in more.
Regardless, once your config files become complex enough that you can't quickly rewrite them if necessary, start looking for a dotfiles manager, tracking them in git, backing them up, etc...
Yeah dot files are config files, and usually apps have one. And yes, you would have to explore each program to see what the settings do.
You picked Debian now, just be aware that all software is very old and when you read docs for programs, you probably have to read about older versions instead of the current one.
very old
Obviously it's subjective but Debian doesn't use ancient software. For instance Bookworm has Python 3.11; the current Python is 3.12. Some software updates slowly enough that you end up with the latest version. I seem to recall zsh being up to date. But yeah, make sure you're using the correct version when looking up docs.
i have a git bare repository in my home and use dotbare to manage it.
here you can find all of them https://github.com/simone-viozzi/my-dot-files