Special System Features; Information About Special Software Packages - Novell LINUX ENTERPRISE DESKTOP 10 SP2 - DEPLOYMENT GUIDE 08-05-2008 Deployment Manual

19

Special System Features

This chapter starts with information about various software packages, the virtual con-
soles, and the keyboard layout. We talk about software components like bash, cron,
and logrotate, because they were changed or enhanced during the last release cycles.
Even if they are small or considered of minor importance, users may want to change
their default behavior, because these components are often closely coupled with the
system. The chapter is finished by a section about language and country-specific settings
(I18N and L10N).
19.1 Information about Special
Software Packages
The programs bash, cron, logrotate, locate, ulimit, and free, and the file
resolv.conf are very important for system administrators and many users. Man
pages and info pages are two useful sources of information about commands, but both
are not always available. GNU Emacs is a popular and very configurable text editor.
19.1.1 The bash Package and /etc/profile
Bash is the default system shell. When used as a login shell, it reads several initialization
files. Bash processes them in the order they appear in this list:
1. /etc/profile
Special System Features 425