What does "rc" in matplotlib's rcParams stand for?

Question

matplotlibrc configuration files are used to customize all kinds of properties in matplotlib. One can change the rc settings to customize the default parameters e.g:

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

... but what does "rc" stand for?

I can't find any explanation in the docs

Solution

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.