I understand that the bashrc and inputrc are used to configure the shell. I'm also assuming that making changes to the versions in /etc apply to all users and the versions in ~./ are for the current user.

So if for example /etc/inputrc and ~/.inputrc are identical have different settings, which one takes priority?

I am trying to add history search from the command prompt while typing and I don't seem to have a ~./inputrc. One suggestion I saw was to copy the one from /etc/inputrc to ~./inputrc and then add the lines in my ~./inputrc. But why do that instead of just creating a new ~./inputrc and adding the lines there, assuming they will be "merged" with what is in the /etc/inputrc? What is the right/best way to handle these types of tweaks?

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You always want to add the lines to your local ~/.inputrc, it will be "merged" with the global one in places where you haven't made any tweaks.

I think people tend to suggest copying the global file because then you don't get any surprises if the global file is updated during an upgrade (though in practice, I find this to be incredibly rare and there's usually a good reason for the change).

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