Path: utzoo!utgpu!utstat!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!wuarchive!gem.mps.ohio-state.edu!rpi!tale
From: tale@pawl.rpi.edu (David C Lawrence)
Newsgroups: comp.unix.questions
Subject: Re: UNIX "dot" files
Message-ID: <1989Oct26.054924.17559@rpi.edu>
Date: 26 Oct 89 05:49:24 GMT
References: <554@ncelvax.UUCP> <1464@crdos1.crd.ge.COM> <958@friar-taac.UUCP>
Organization: Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, Troy NY
Lines: 38

In <1464@crdos1.crd.ge.COM> davidsen@crdos1.crd.ge.COM (Wm E Davidsen Jr):
bill>   ls will display these files with the -a option, which is set by
bill> default for root on many systems.

Minor correction: -A, not -a, is the option toggled on by default for
root on most BSD derived systems.

In <958@friar-taac.UUCP> matthew@sunpix.UUCP (Sun Visualization Products):
Matthew> The only special significance of files with a leading '.'
Matthew> (dot) is that they are considered "normally" hidden.

It's what some have called a conspiracy between ls and the shells.  It
certainly isn't anything intrinsic to the Unix file system.

Matthew> Try an 'ls' and then an 'ls -a', and see which one you'd like
Matthew> all the time.

Actually, I'd prefer -A all the time, which of course can be aliased
for my normal usage.  It lets me know exactly what is in a directory
so I'm not bitten by, for example, someone else's .gdbinit.

Matthew> The only "special" files are '.' and '..'.  They are pointer
Matthew> to the current directory ('.')  and parent directory ('..').

"Special" by name, at least, with the exception of '/'.  Files can be
special in the file system in other ways, with directories, symbolic
links, block- and character-special files, AF_UNIX sockets and named
pipes all being "special" files in their own regard.

Matthew> As one instructor told me about UNIX(tm),
Matthew> 	"a file is a file, is a file .................."

What is this supposed to mean?  A parallel on the poem?  If so, 
"File is a file is a file is a file."  Thorny nit, I realize. :-)

Disclaimer: I'm tired.
-- 
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