HP Certified: HP-UX System Administration

19.5 The Skeleton Directory (/etc/skel)

This directory contains default configuration files for new users. These files are copied to the newly created home directory of a user when the useradd command is executed with the -m option. You can configure these files with default settings. The .exrc file is used as the startup configuration file for the vi editor. If the user is assigned to the C shell, the . cshrc and .login files are used at the time of login. If a user has POSIX or Bourne shell as the default shell, the .profile file is used at login. Environment settings like the PATH variable, default printer, and user prompt may be configured in these files. A listing of this directory is as follows .

$ ll -a /etc/skel total 20 drwxrwxr-x 2 root sys 96 Nov 9 1997 . dr-xr-xr-x 27 bin bin 6144 Nov 9 20:20 .. -r--r--r-- 1 bin bin 814 Nov 7 1997 .cshrc -r--r--r-- 1 bin bin 347 Oct 27 1997 .exrc -r--r--r-- 1 bin bin 341 Nov 7 1997 .login -r--r--r-- 1 bin bin 446 Nov 7 1997 .profile $