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Editorial Team
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Asked: 2026-05-11T23:43:32+00:00

Two questions, really: Is there a standard/convention regarding the placement on configuration files? For

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Two questions, really:

  1. Is there a standard/convention regarding the placement on configuration files?

    For system or quasi-system programs they seem to usually be somewhere in /etc. It seems less clear for plain application programs or programs with insufficient privileges for /etc.

  2. In processing program options is there a standard hierarchy of what takes precedence? E.g. does a command line option override an initialization file and/or an environment variable? Vice versa? Or is this entirely up to the developer?

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  1. Editorial Team
    1. Generally system/global config is stored somewhere under /etc.
    2. User-specific config is stored in the user’s home directory, often as a hidden file, sometimes as a hidden directory containing non-hidden files (and possibly more subdirectories).

    Generally speaking, command line options will override environment variables which will override user defaults which will override system defaults.

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