HP-UX System Administrator's Guide: Configuration Management

18. When the process completes, you are returned to the Local User or NIS User
listing.
Skeleton Directory
The skeleton directory contains files that are copied to a new home directory by HP
SMH and the useradd command. The default skeleton directory is /etc/skel. Files
can be added and removed. A different directory can be used; see “Changing the
Skeleton Directory” (page 54). The default files in /etc/skel are shown in Table 4-1.
Table 4-1 Default Files in the Skeleton Directory
PurposeFile Name
Start-up file for the C shell, csh..cshrc
Start-up file for the text editors. ex and vi..exrc
Start-up file for the C shell, csh..login
Start-up file for the POSIX shell, sh and rsh.
Start-up file for the Korn shell, ksh and rksh.
.profile
Some suggested or recommended files are shown in Table 4-2.
Table 4-2 Suggested Files for the Skeleton Directory
PurposeFile Name
Conventional start-up file for the POSIX shell, sh and rsh, and the Korn shell,
ksh and rksh.
The ENV environment variable, which is usually defined in .profile, specifies
the name of this file.
.kshrc
This file is used by sendmail to redirect messages. If the user does not receive
e-mail on the system, the file can be edited to point to the correct location.
.forward
This file can be edited to allow users on other systems to rlogin to this user’s
account on this system without a password.
.rhosts
Changing the Skeleton Directory
You can designate a different directory for the account skeleton with the useradd -D
-k newskel command (see useradd(1M)).
This is useful if you modify the skeleton files or add other files to provide the initial
user environment. You can also create different skeletons for different user groups.
By not modifying /etc/skel itself, you retain the original installed information.
54 Configuring Users and Groups