rpm -e and Config files

If you've made changes to a configuration file that was originally installed by RPM, your changes won't be lost if you erase the package. Say, for example, that we've made changes to /etc/skel/.bashrc (a config file), which was installed as part of the etcskel package. Later, we remove etcskel:

# rpm -e etcskel
#

But if we take a look in /etc/skel, look what's there:

# ls -al
total 5
drwxr-xr-x   3 root     root         1024 Jun 17 22:01 .
drwxr-xr-x   8 root     root         2048 Jun 17 19:01 ..
-rw-r--r--   1 root     root          152 Jun 17 21:54 .bashrc.rpmsave
drwxr-xr-x   2 root     root         1024 May 13 13:18 .xfm
#

Sure enough: .bashrc.rpmsave is a copy of your modified .bashrc file! Remember, however, that this feature only works with config files. Not sure how to determine which files RPM thinks are config files? Chapter , specifically, section on page will show you how.