Customizing your account

You can modify your account to suit your needs. However, before you attempt to change any of the system defaults, you should be familiar with the system. Changing the setup incorrectly may prevent you from logging in to your account.

Below are some general instructions for making your account serve you better. Before you begin, you should be familiar with a text editor as well as Unix file structures.

Please read all the instructions below before modifying your account.

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• Before you change anything....
• Hidden files and directories (aka dotfiles).
• Bypassing customizations when logging in.
• Returning to the default setup (repairing dotfiles).
• Files that establish your environment.

Customization examples

Once you've read and understood the above sections, you have everything you need to safely make changes to your account resources.

Some basic customization examples:

• How to customize your prompt
• How to put a picture on the background at login
• How to load aliases at login
• How to add lockers at login
• How to make programs start at login
• How to set X program and window colors

To customize a specific application, see the tutorial on that program.

Content last updated May, 2004, by daniel
Last modified August 28, 2006 by cawalker