rc Params in matplotlib: what does "rc" stand for?

python matplotlib configuration customization configuration-files
ztl picture ztl · Jun 9, 2016 · Viewed 24.3k times · Source

It is said that matplotlibrc configuration files are used to customize all kinds of properties in matplotlib, that one can dynamically change the default rc settings to customize the default parameters for example through:

matplotlib.rcParams['font.family'] = 'times new roman'

... But: what does "rc" stand for?

PS: sorry, not a programming question in itself, but this is very likely the best place to talk about matplotlib... and I can't find it in full word in the doc.

Answer

Daerdemandt picture Daerdemandt · Jun 9, 2016

It's common to end configuration files in 'rc' - e.g. '.xinitrc', '.vimrc' and '.bashrc'.

It stems from practice of having your configs executable - they are automatically Run at startup and they Configure your stuff.

This started long ago, even before Unix:

[Unix: from runcom files on the CTSS system 1962-63, via the startup script /etc/rc] 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.

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