Just a memory dump for important files and directories.
- ~/.bashrc
- runs on interactive login
- ~/.bash_aliases
- runs from .bashrc (if uncommented…)
- ~/.emacs
- Emacs settings
- /etc/crontab
- file that controls scheduled running of scripts
- /etc/cron.d/hourly, daily, weekly, monthly
- for running scripts on a scheduled basis
- /etc/group
- groups in the system
- /etc/hosts
- hard-coded hosts like in Windows.
- /etc/motd
- the greetings text when logging into the system
- /etc/resolv.conf
- DNS hosts
- /etc/sudoers
- users and groups that can do sudo. Edit via sudo visudo.
- /etc/syslog.conf
- log configuration (cron etc)
- /etc/init.d/
- daemon control files. To remove from startup, use sudo /etc/init.d/XYZ stop, sudo update-rc.d -f XYZ remove. To start manually: sudo /etc/init.d/XYZ start
- /etc/init.d/gdm
- Gnome Desktop Manager.
- /etc/rcS
- file run at system start. Runs the files in /etc/rcX.d depending on run level
- /etc/rcX.d/
- files that are run from /etc/rcS depending on run level. See The Linux Boot Process Explained
- /var/log/
- log files
- /var/run/
- lock files and run-time information
- /etc/apt/sources.list
- the list of URLs for apt-get for upgrading / installing packages
Also see Filesystem Hierarchy Standard.