Special Edition Using Linux®, Sixth Edition

Customizing Your Environment

By using what you've learned previously, you can see that it is a fairly simple task to customize your environment. From within your own home directory, just change or add those things that you want, export them if necessary, and you're off. Additions and changes can be made from a command line as well as from .bashrc-private. Just type the command at a command prompt as you list it in the rc file. This is a great way to experiment.

Take a look at your environment by typing set (or declare if you're also using functions). If you look down the list, you'll see something interesting: a UID. This is how the system knows who you are, and what your permissions are. Great! If you change this, you can become root. Sound ...