Graeme Hewson wrote:
The reason for the different names is in this message from Guy in 2000:
I went with
    3) "${sysconfdir}/ethereal.conf" as the global preferences file
       - "${sysconfdir}" is typically an "etc" directory, and
       "preferences" is too generic a name, as there might be a
       collision with some other program's file - and
       "~/.ethereal/preferences" as the user's preference file.
However, I'd like to see the same name for the local and global files 
too.  These days, the global files are typically in 
/usr/local/share/ethereal, so I don't think Guy's comment is valid any 
more.
It's not.  The configuration files for Ethereal were moved out of 
${sysconfdir} since then.
- The man pages don't mention dfilters.
Yes, they do (well, "it does", not "they do" - Tethereal uses neither 
cfilters nor dfilters):
 The personal capture filters file, in $HOME/.ethereal/cfilters on UNIX-
 compatible systems, and %APPDATA%\Ethereal\cfilters (or, if %APPDATA%
 isn't defined, %USERPROFILE%\Application Data\Ethereal\cfilters) on
 Windows systems, and the personal display filters file, in $HOME/.ethe-
 real/dfilters on UNIX-compatible systems, and %APPDATA%\Ethereal\dfil-
 ters (or, if %APPDATA% isn't defined, %USERPROFILE%\Application
 Data\Ethereal\dfilters) on Windows systems, contain personal capture
 and display filters, respectively.
- Should the Ethereal man page mention cfilters under "FILES" as well as 
 Windows/Save?
It *does* mention them - see above.