rc file

/R C fi:l/ [Unix: from the startup script "/etc/rc", but this

is commonly believed to have been named after older scripts to

"run commands"] 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.

See also dot file, profile (sense 1).

[Jargon File]