Related:

• c file /R-C fi:l/ n. [Unix: from `runcom files' on the CTSS system 1962-63
  via the startup script /etc/rc] Script file containing startup instructions for an application program (or an entire operating system), usually a text file containing commands of the sort that might have been invoked manually once the system was running but are to be executed automatically each time the system starts up....
• What does "rc" stand for, and why are there so many "rc" files?
  The letters stand for Run-Com, the name of a command file on early DEC operating systems....
• dot file: [UNIX] n. A file that is not visible by default to normal directory-browsing tools (on UNIX
  files named with a leading dot are, by convention, not normally presented in directory listings)....
• profile: n. 1. A control file for a program, esp. a text file automatically read from each user's home directory and intended to be easily modified by the user in order to customize the program's behavior.
  Used to avoid {hardcoded} choices (see also {dot file}, {rc file})....
• dot file [Unix] n. A file that is not visible by default to normal directory-browsing tools (on Unix
  files named with a leading dot are, by convention, not normally presented in directory listings)....
• profile n. 1. A control file for a program, esp.
  a text file automatically read from each user's home directory and intended to be easily modified by the user in order to customize the program's behavior....
• ITS /I-T-S/ n. 1. Incompatible Time-sharing System, an influential though highly idiosyncratic operating system written for PDP-6s and PDP-10s at MIT and long used at the MIT AI Lab.
  Much AI-hacker jargon derives from ITS folklore, and to have been `an ITS hacker' qualifies one instantly as an old-timer of the most venerable sort....
• wheel bit: n. A privilege bit that allows the possessor to perform some restricted operation on a timesharing system
  uch as read or write any file on the system regardless of protections, change or look at any address in the running monitor, crash or reload the system, and kill or create jobs and user accounts....
• prowler: [UNIX] n. A {daemon} that is run periodically (typically once a week) to seek out and erase {core} file
  uncate administrative logfiles, nuke `lost+found' directories, and otherwise clean up the {cruft} that tends to pile up in the corners of a file system....