On Sunday 04 June 2006 13:27, Fülöp Nándor wrote: > > I've never really understood what should go in .bashrc > > and what in .bash_profile ... ? > (1) When you log in, the bash first checks the presence of file > ``/etc/profile''. If it exists, the ``bash'' executes the commands listed > in ``/etc/profile'' - if this file does not exist, bash does not mind its > absence. > The ``/etc/profile'' is applied for all users of your system - usually you > may modify it as ``root''. > > (2) Then, the bash reads and executes the commands listed in > `.bash_profile' being in home directory. Unlike ``/etc/profile'', > ``.bash_profile'' is user-specific! > As usually all ordinary users have own home directories, there are as many > ``.bash_profile'' files as many users are in your system. E.g. if you are > logging in as user ``root'', file ``/root/.bash_profile'' will be executed > - if you are logging in as ``joe'', file ``/home/joe/.bash_profile'' will > be executed (supposing that home directory of user ``joe'' is > ``/home/joe/''), etc. So, if the different users need different settings > after their logging in, you may do that by customizing their > ``.bash_profile''. > > (3) For all further shells (after logging in), bash reads and executes the > commands in the `.bashrc' file in the home directory of actual user. > Commands being in this file run whenever a new shell is started except for > the login shell. (This file is also user-specific, like ``.bash_profile''!) > > So, as a consequence, when you modify the files above, ``bash'' will notice > the modification in case of new run of ``bash'' - so, the simplest way to > assure the correctness of the modifications, log out and log in again > immediately. Thanks for the info. It's not really clear to me what one would use . bashrc for; it seems everything should go in .bash_profile . I take it that, in Linux, a "further shell" is normally started for each desktop? When else would a "further shell" be started? -- Timothy Murphy e-mail (<80k only): tim /at/ birdsnest.maths.tcd.ie tel: +353-86-2336090, +353-1-2842366 s-mail: School of Mathematics, Trinity College, Dublin 2, Ireland
