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Skeletal profiles

 included in ops
   345 words   2 minutes 
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Sample startup files are traditionally kept in /etc/skel. If you customize your systems' startup file examples, /usr/local/etc/skel is a reasonable place to put the modified copies.1

Default startup files are stored in /etc/skel.

$ ls -al /etc/skel

# total 20
# drwxr-xr-x 2 root root 4096 Sep 16 01:22 .
# drwxr-xr-x 1 root root 4096 Sep 25 19:20 ..
# -rw-r--r-- 1 root root  220 Feb 25  2020 .bash_logout
# -rw-r--r-- 1 root root 3771 Feb 25  2020 .bashrc
# -rw-r--r-- 1 root root  807 Feb 25  2020 .profile

This directory is used during the addition of users.

$ cat /etc/default/useradd

# [...]
# The SKEL variable specifies the directory containing "skeletal" user
# files; in other words, files such as a sample .profile that will be
# copied to the new user's home directory when it is created.
# SKEL=/etc/skel

In Jupyter Docker Stacks, we are customizing the startup .bashrc file2. It is done before the creation of the default user (jovyan), so it will benefit for this customization. And the same goes for any other user that will be created—it’s the case when images are spawned by JupyterHub for example.

Let’s illustrate it.

# setting the color prompt by removing comment at the beginning of the line
$ sed -i 's/^#force_color_prompt=yes/force_color_prompt=yes/' /etc/skel/.bashrc
# creating the new user
$ useradd -m -s /bin/bash -N -u 1000 jovyan
# login will use the customized .bashrc file
$ su jovyan
$ cat ~/.bashrc | grep force_color_prompt=yes

# force_color_prompt=yes

Here is the result, beautiful!

Color prompt

Note
The file is modified in place instead of being done in a copy in /usr/local/etc/skel like advised in the book because we are working on an image and not on a system that will be updated.

  1. Nemeth, Evi, et al. UNIX and Linux System Administration Handbook. Addison Wesley, 2017. ↩︎

  2. According to the UNIX and Linux System Administration Handbook, startup files traditionally begin with a dot and end with the letters rc, short for “run command”, a relic of the CTSS operating system. ↩︎

Updated on 2020-09-26
 linux
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