Linux config files

It occurred to me that I've put a lot of time into things like config files, customizing Linux to my liking. Most of that time was spent running around the internet trying to figure out what the config files should look like, rather than writing them, so I thought I would post some of my config files here so that people could look at them. Feel free to copy them, modify them, whatever.

I use bash as my shell, and FVWM as my window manager. If you don't use these, then most of these files aren't likely to be of a whole lot of use to you.

Also, I use vi (or ViM). There are several things that relate to this, most importantly the line `set -o vi` in my .bashrc. If you just use my .bashrc as it is, your shell will start behaving like vi, which may or may not be what you want. You have been warned.

Lastly, many things must always be configured on a per-machine basis. These files probably won't work without at least a little bit of customization. Look particularly at the PATH in the .bashrc, and the ModulePath in the .fvwm2rc.

I highly recommend not just blowing away your old config files with these, since the old ones more than likely contain useful stuff, like the correct paths for your system. Make backups of your old configs before you download these, or don't download them directly to your home directory. You have been warned.

Always remember: Linux does not have an 'un-delete' command. Backups are your friend.

If you do try to run stuff with my files and find you can't log in at all, it's probably due to a problem with the .xsession. Check the path to the window manager, and make sure it's correct (you'll probably have to do this from the console, or another window manager, or something).

For those who are interested, a copy of this paper is translated to Serbo-Croatian language at WebHostingGeeks.com.

.bashrc
The .bashrc file controls the operation of your shell, if you use bash. If you don't use bash, it doesn't do much of anything at all.
This gets evaluated every time you open a terminal, ssh, etc. Or it should. Some systems don't actually execute it, for reasons I have never understood. At any rate, you can do `source ~/.bashrc` to force it to be evaluated.

.fvwm2rc
The .fwvm2rc controls the look and feel of FVWM, the [your favorite thing starting with the letter 'F'] Virtual Window Manager. Again, if you don't use FVWM, it's not going to do anything. Make sure you set the ModulePath to the correct location on your system.

.xsession
The .xsession controls what happens when you log in to an X server. Mine does a bunch of stuff, including loading a pretty background, and starting FVWM. Your paths may vary.
If you'd rather use KDE or GNOME, you probably don't need one of these at all.
Note that this file uses my keyswitch file; see below.

.Xdefaults
The .Xdefaults file contains default settings for all sorts of things. You can control what your x-terms look like, for example. This one's pretty safe; no paths, though you might have font issues if you use it without modification.

.vimrc
Ahh, the .vimrc. This file controls the default behavior of ViM, which is, of course, your favorite text editor. If, by some horrid chance, you were never introduced to ViM, then this file will do you no good, as it is far too easy to understand to be in e-lisp.

.gvimrc
Like the above, but gets evaluated if you're running the GUI.

.mydircolors
This file gets evaluated from my .bashrc; it controls the colors of things when you're using a terminal that can display colors (like xterm or aterm). It's basically like the default, except that I find the blue directory color difficult to read on my dark terminal backgrounds, so I made directories yellow instead.

mycolors.vim
A colorscheme I made for ViM (or GVIM). It's a lot like Desert, but it has my favored minty-green text.

keyswitch
This switches control with caps-lock, and escape with tilde (~), in addition to switching grave (`) and tilde (~), so you don't need to press shift to get the tilde, which I found to be the much more common character (eg. ~/). It also makes the right alt key work as a backspace, and the windows key next to it work as enter. '!' comments out lines, if you don't want these things; I like them, as they allow me to transfer strain from my pinkies, which are weak, to my thumbs, which are much stronger.
To use it, just do `xmodmap keyswitch`.

qwerty.kbd
`xmodmap qwerty.kbd` will get your keyboard from whatever mode it's in to the default qwerty mapping.
If you can type it.

If you're going to play around with xmodmap, I would suggest making a shortcut to this one. If you're using my .fvwm2rc, CTRL-ALT-2 is already set up to execute this command.

dvorak.kbd
Another xmodmap file; this one creates a standard dvorak mapping from a standard qwerty one. Note that if you evaluate it again, it will happily re-map your dvorak keyboard to dvorak as if it were qwerty, and it will be really hard to type. This is where the shortcut above comes in handy.

my.kbd
The layout that I use, personally; it's basically a combination of the dvorak mapping and the keyswitch mapping. If you're using my .fvwm2rc, hitting CTRL-ALT-1 will switch you to this mapping. Note that this file now contains keymaps to generate proper behavior with XFree86 4.3.0 and later (there are some new keysyms that are used for Ctrl-Alt-Bkspace, terminal switching, etc.)

.Xmodmap This is just a copy of the my.kbd file, but with this name, it should get automatically read in when you log into X.

logitechEVDEV.map This file re-maps the buttons on my trackball to a more useful ordering (eg. the wheel behaves properly, the buttons do what I want them to, etc.). You'll probably want something different if you use a different model pointer device.