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List_of_Configuration_Files

This article is part of the Tips & Tricks series.
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This tip will hopefully give a canonical list where all of those configuration files live, and a brief description of what they do. You may not have/need all the files detailed here (depends on the packages you have installed).

Contents

System Related

/etc/conf.d/local.start
This is a good place to load any misc applications/scripts at boot. Make sure to append '1>&2 > /dev/null' to the end of the program run line.
/etc/conf.d/local.stop
This is a good place to unload any programs that were started with '/etc/conf.d/local.start'.
/etc/dispatch-conf.conf
Configuration settings for dispatch-conf (an alternative to etc-update with similar configuration parameters).
/etc/etc-update.conf
Configuration settings for etc-update (such as your favorite diff-command, arguments for cp, mv and rm) are stored here.
/etc/login.access
Controls which users can log in, and from where. Useful to forbid root logins from anywhere but physical console.
/etc/login.defs
Contains many variables for controlling logins, such as password aging and the number of permissible login attempts by a user.
/etc/make.conf
This is probably the most important of all the configuration files - it controls how Gentoo builds new packages you emerge. See the man page for more information.
/etc/modules.autoload.d/kernel-2.x
File which lists the kernel modules to load at boot.
/etc/rc.conf
Sets basic system startup options.
/etc/conf.d/rc
Global config file for the Gentoo RC System - for example, preventing hotplug/coldplug from autostarting services.
/etc/sysctl.conf
Config file for sysctl. Sets kernel parameters on startup, such as ip_forward.
/etc/updatedb.conf
Settings for filesystem types that are NOT indexed by updatedb (or slocate -u). If you want an NFS or Samba mount to be indexed, you can remove the appropriate types from the PRUNEFS variable. The types are the same as used in the /etc/fstab file.
/etc/conf.d/cryptfs
Config file for cryptsetup-luks. Sets cryptsetup-luks parameters on startup, such as mounting points.

Network Related

/etc/conf.d/distccd
If you are using DISTCCD to speed up compilation on a network, there are some options here. Of particular interest is the DISTCCD_NICE variable.
/etc/conf.d/net
Basic network card configuration. Contains details of how the IP address is set, as well as the gateway. Both static IP's and DHCP is configured here.
/etc/conf.d/wireless
Wireless network card configuration. You need a pretty new baselayout for this though (eg. 1.9.x).
/etc/hosts
Lists the IP addresses of hosts on a local network. IMPORTANT: the line 127.0.0.1 localhost should always be present!
/etc/resolv.conf
Lists your DNS servers. If you are using DHCP, this file will be overwritten each time your network interface goes up.
/etc/ssh/sshd_config
Settings for the SSH server. One important setting is PermitRootLogin which you can set to "no" to disable root logins (you can still ssh as a normal user, and then su to root).

Hardware Related

/etc/fstab
This is the list of devices that should be mounted at boot time (e.g. hard disks), and also defines mount points for other devices (e.g. CD-ROMs).
/boot/grub/grub.conf
If you are using the GRUB bootloader, this is normally where the boot menu config file is.
/etc/lilo.conf
If you are using the lilo bootloader, an example config is includes at /etc/lilo.conf.example

Sound Related

/etc/asound.state
ALSA audio settings. This file is auto loaded and saved on startup and shutdown. Tune (indirectly) via `alsamixer`
~/.openalrc
OpenAL per-user settings. This is used by programs that utilize the OpenAL sound library such as Unreal 2003/2004

See Also: ALSA/Install

Video Related

/etc/X11/xorg.conf
X.org configuration. If this file does not exist then /etc/X11/XF86Config is used.

See Also: Index:XOrg

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Last modified: Wed, 27 Aug 2008 09:28:00 +1000 Hits: 38,523

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