What s the difference between bashrc bash profile and environment

Question

I ve used a number of different  nix-based systems of the years  and it seems like every flavor of Bash I use has a different algorithm for deciding which startup scripts to run   For the purposes of tasks like setting up environment variables and aliases and printing startup messages  e g  MOTDs   which startup script is the appropriate place to do these   What s the difference between putting things in  bashrc   bash profile  and  environment   I ve also seen other files such as  login   bash login  and  profile  are these ever relevant   What are the differences in which ones get run when logging in physically  logging in remotely via ssh  and opening a new terminal window   Are there any significant differences across platforms  including Mac OS X  and its Terminal app  and Cygwin Bash

User · Answer

Classically     profile is used by Bourne Shell  and is probably supported by Bash as a legacy measure   Again     login and    cshrc were used by C Shell - I m not sure that Bash uses them at all   The    bash profile would be used once  at login   The    bashrc script is read every time a shell is started   This is analogous to   cshrc for C Shell   One consequence is that stuff in    bashrc should be as lightweight  minimal  as possible to reduce the overhead when starting a non-login shell   I believe the    environment file is a compatibility file for Korn Shell

User · Answer

I found information about  bashrc and  bash profile here to sum it up       bash profile is executed when you   login  Stuff you put in there might be   your PATH and other important   environment variables        bashrc is used for non login shells    I m not sure what that means  I know   that RedHat   executes it everytime you start   another shell  su to this user or   simply calling bash again  You might   want to put aliases in there but again   I am not sure what that means  I   simply ignore it myself        profile is the equivalent of    bash profile for the root  I think   the name is changed to let other   shells  csh  sh  tcsh  use it as well     you don t need one as a user       There is also  bash logout wich   executes at  yeah good guess   logout    You might want to stop deamons or even   make a little housekeeping   You can   also add  clear  there if you want to   clear the screen when you log out    Also there is a complete follow up on each of the configurations files here  These are probably even distro -dependant  not all distros choose to have each configuraton with them and some have even more  But when they have the same name  they usualy include the same content

User · Answer

I found information about  bashrc and  bash profile here to sum it up       bash profile is executed when you   login  Stuff you put in there might be   your PATH and other important   environment variables        bashrc is used for non login shells    I m not sure what that means  I know   that RedHat   executes it everytime you start   another shell  su to this user or   simply calling bash again  You might   want to put aliases in there but again   I am not sure what that means  I   simply ignore it myself        profile is the equivalent of    bash profile for the root  I think   the name is changed to let other   shells  csh  sh  tcsh  use it as well     you don t need one as a user       There is also  bash logout wich   executes at  yeah good guess   logout    You might want to stop deamons or even   make a little housekeeping   You can   also add  clear  there if you want to   clear the screen when you log out    Also there is a complete follow up on each of the configurations files here  These are probably even distro -dependant  not all distros choose to have each configuraton with them and some have even more  But when they have the same name  they usualy include the same content

User · Answer

That s simple  It s explained in man bash    bin bash        The bash executable  etc profile        The systemwide initialization file  executed for login shells    bash profile        The personal initialization file  executed for login shells    bashrc        The individual per-interactive-shell startup file    bash logout        The individual login shell cleanup file  executed when a login shell exits    inputrc        Individual readline initialization file   Login shells are the ones that are read one you login  so  they are not executed when merely starting up xterm  for example   There are other ways to login  For example using an X display manager  Those have other ways to read and export environment variables at login time   Also read the INVOCATION chapter in the manual  It says  The  following  paragraphs  describe  how  bash  executes its startup files    i think that s a spot-on    It explains what an  interactive  shell is too   Bash does not know about  environment  I suspect that s a file of your distribution  to set environment variables independent of the shell that you drive

User · Answer

The main difference with shell config files is that some are only read by  login  shells  eg  when you login from another host  or login at the text console of a local unix machine   these are the ones called  say   login or  profile or  zlogin  depending on which shell you re using    Then you have config files that are read by  interactive  shells  as in  ones connected to a terminal  or pseudo-terminal in the case of  say  a terminal emulator running under a windowing system   these are the ones with names like  bashrc   tcshrc   zshrc  etc   bash complicates this in that  bashrc is only read by a shell that s both interactive and non-login  so you ll find most people end up telling their  bash profile to also read  bashrc with something like     -r    bashrc     amp  amp       bashrc  Other shells behave differently - eg with zsh   zshrc is always read for an interactive shell  whether it s a login one or not   The manual page for bash explains the circumstances under which each file is read  Yes  behaviour is generally consistent between machines    profile is simply the login script filename originally used by  bin sh  bash  being generally backwards-compatible with  bin sh  will read  profile if one exists

User · Answer

I have used Debian-family distros which appear to execute  profile  but not  bash profile  whereas RHEL derivatives execute  bash profile before  profile   It seems to be a mess when you have to set up environment variables to work in any Linux OS

User · Answer

That s simple  It s explained in man bash    bin bash        The bash executable  etc profile        The systemwide initialization file  executed for login shells    bash profile        The personal initialization file  executed for login shells    bashrc        The individual per-interactive-shell startup file    bash logout        The individual login shell cleanup file  executed when a login shell exits    inputrc        Individual readline initialization file   Login shells are the ones that are read one you login  so  they are not executed when merely starting up xterm  for example   There are other ways to login  For example using an X display manager  Those have other ways to read and export environment variables at login time   Also read the INVOCATION chapter in the manual  It says  The  following  paragraphs  describe  how  bash  executes its startup files    i think that s a spot-on    It explains what an  interactive  shell is too   Bash does not know about  environment  I suspect that s a file of your distribution  to set environment variables independent of the shell that you drive

User · Answer

I have used Debian-family distros which appear to execute  profile  but not  bash profile  whereas RHEL derivatives execute  bash profile before  profile   It seems to be a mess when you have to set up environment variables to work in any Linux OS

User · Answer

That s simple  It s explained in man bash    bin bash        The bash executable  etc profile        The systemwide initialization file  executed for login shells    bash profile        The personal initialization file  executed for login shells    bashrc        The individual per-interactive-shell startup file    bash logout        The individual login shell cleanup file  executed when a login shell exits    inputrc        Individual readline initialization file   Login shells are the ones that are read one you login  so  they are not executed when merely starting up xterm  for example   There are other ways to login  For example using an X display manager  Those have other ways to read and export environment variables at login time   Also read the INVOCATION chapter in the manual  It says  The  following  paragraphs  describe  how  bash  executes its startup files    i think that s a spot-on    It explains what an  interactive  shell is too   Bash does not know about  environment  I suspect that s a file of your distribution  to set environment variables independent of the shell that you drive

User · Answer

The main difference with shell config files is that some are only read by  login  shells  eg  when you login from another host  or login at the text console of a local unix machine   these are the ones called  say   login or  profile or  zlogin  depending on which shell you re using    Then you have config files that are read by  interactive  shells  as in  ones connected to a terminal  or pseudo-terminal in the case of  say  a terminal emulator running under a windowing system   these are the ones with names like  bashrc   tcshrc   zshrc  etc   bash complicates this in that  bashrc is only read by a shell that s both interactive and non-login  so you ll find most people end up telling their  bash profile to also read  bashrc with something like     -r    bashrc     amp  amp       bashrc  Other shells behave differently - eg with zsh   zshrc is always read for an interactive shell  whether it s a login one or not   The manual page for bash explains the circumstances under which each file is read  Yes  behaviour is generally consistent between machines    profile is simply the login script filename originally used by  bin sh  bash  being generally backwards-compatible with  bin sh  will read  profile if one exists

User · Answer

I found information about  bashrc and  bash profile here to sum it up       bash profile is executed when you   login  Stuff you put in there might be   your PATH and other important   environment variables        bashrc is used for non login shells    I m not sure what that means  I know   that RedHat   executes it everytime you start   another shell  su to this user or   simply calling bash again  You might   want to put aliases in there but again   I am not sure what that means  I   simply ignore it myself        profile is the equivalent of    bash profile for the root  I think   the name is changed to let other   shells  csh  sh  tcsh  use it as well     you don t need one as a user       There is also  bash logout wich   executes at  yeah good guess   logout    You might want to stop deamons or even   make a little housekeeping   You can   also add  clear  there if you want to   clear the screen when you log out    Also there is a complete follow up on each of the configurations files here  These are probably even distro -dependant  not all distros choose to have each configuraton with them and some have even more  But when they have the same name  they usualy include the same content

User · Answer

Classically     profile is used by Bourne Shell  and is probably supported by Bash as a legacy measure   Again     login and    cshrc were used by C Shell - I m not sure that Bash uses them at all   The    bash profile would be used once  at login   The    bashrc script is read every time a shell is started   This is analogous to   cshrc for C Shell   One consequence is that stuff in    bashrc should be as lightweight  minimal  as possible to reduce the overhead when starting a non-login shell   I believe the    environment file is a compatibility file for Korn Shell

User · Answer

The main difference with shell config files is that some are only read by  login  shells  eg  when you login from another host  or login at the text console of a local unix machine   these are the ones called  say   login or  profile or  zlogin  depending on which shell you re using    Then you have config files that are read by  interactive  shells  as in  ones connected to a terminal  or pseudo-terminal in the case of  say  a terminal emulator running under a windowing system   these are the ones with names like  bashrc   tcshrc   zshrc  etc   bash complicates this in that  bashrc is only read by a shell that s both interactive and non-login  so you ll find most people end up telling their  bash profile to also read  bashrc with something like     -r    bashrc     amp  amp       bashrc  Other shells behave differently - eg with zsh   zshrc is always read for an interactive shell  whether it s a login one or not   The manual page for bash explains the circumstances under which each file is read  Yes  behaviour is generally consistent between machines    profile is simply the login script filename originally used by  bin sh  bash  being generally backwards-compatible with  bin sh  will read  profile if one exists

User · Answer

A good place to look at is the man page of bash  Here s an online version  Look for  INVOCATION  section

User · Answer

The main difference with shell config files is that some are only read by  login  shells  eg  when you login from another host  or login at the text console of a local unix machine   these are the ones called  say   login or  profile or  zlogin  depending on which shell you re using    Then you have config files that are read by  interactive  shells  as in  ones connected to a terminal  or pseudo-terminal in the case of  say  a terminal emulator running under a windowing system   these are the ones with names like  bashrc   tcshrc   zshrc  etc   bash complicates this in that  bashrc is only read by a shell that s both interactive and non-login  so you ll find most people end up telling their  bash profile to also read  bashrc with something like     -r    bashrc     amp  amp       bashrc  Other shells behave differently - eg with zsh   zshrc is always read for an interactive shell  whether it s a login one or not   The manual page for bash explains the circumstances under which each file is read  Yes  behaviour is generally consistent between machines    profile is simply the login script filename originally used by  bin sh  bash  being generally backwards-compatible with  bin sh  will read  profile if one exists

User · Answer

According to Josh Staiger  Mac OS X s Terminal app actually runs a login shell rather than a non-login shell by default for each new terminal window  calling  bash profile instead of  bashrc   He recommends      Most of the time you don   t want to maintain two separate config files   for login and non-login shells     when you set a PATH  you want it to   apply to both  You can fix this by sourcing  bashrc from your    bash profile file  then putting PATH and common settings in  bashrc       To do this  add the following lines to  bash profile    if   -f    bashrc    then      source    bashrc  fi       Now when you login to your   machine from a console  bashrc will be called

User · Answer

A good place to look at is the man page of bash  Here s an online version  Look for  INVOCATION  section

User · Answer

I found information about  bashrc and  bash profile here to sum it up       bash profile is executed when you   login  Stuff you put in there might be   your PATH and other important   environment variables        bashrc is used for non login shells    I m not sure what that means  I know   that RedHat   executes it everytime you start   another shell  su to this user or   simply calling bash again  You might   want to put aliases in there but again   I am not sure what that means  I   simply ignore it myself        profile is the equivalent of    bash profile for the root  I think   the name is changed to let other   shells  csh  sh  tcsh  use it as well     you don t need one as a user       There is also  bash logout wich   executes at  yeah good guess   logout    You might want to stop deamons or even   make a little housekeeping   You can   also add  clear  there if you want to   clear the screen when you log out    Also there is a complete follow up on each of the configurations files here  These are probably even distro -dependant  not all distros choose to have each configuraton with them and some have even more  But when they have the same name  they usualy include the same content

User · Answer

A good place to look at is the man page of bash  Here s an online version  Look for  INVOCATION  section

User · Answer

A good place to look at is the man page of bash  Here s an online version  Look for  INVOCATION  section

User · Answer

Classically     profile is used by Bourne Shell  and is probably supported by Bash as a legacy measure   Again     login and    cshrc were used by C Shell - I m not sure that Bash uses them at all   The    bash profile would be used once  at login   The    bashrc script is read every time a shell is started   This is analogous to   cshrc for C Shell   One consequence is that stuff in    bashrc should be as lightweight  minimal  as possible to reduce the overhead when starting a non-login shell   I believe the    environment file is a compatibility file for Korn Shell

User · Answer

That s simple  It s explained in man bash    bin bash        The bash executable  etc profile        The systemwide initialization file  executed for login shells    bash profile        The personal initialization file  executed for login shells    bashrc        The individual per-interactive-shell startup file    bash logout        The individual login shell cleanup file  executed when a login shell exits    inputrc        Individual readline initialization file   Login shells are the ones that are read one you login  so  they are not executed when merely starting up xterm  for example   There are other ways to login  For example using an X display manager  Those have other ways to read and export environment variables at login time   Also read the INVOCATION chapter in the manual  It says  The  following  paragraphs  describe  how  bash  executes its startup files    i think that s a spot-on    It explains what an  interactive  shell is too   Bash does not know about  environment  I suspect that s a file of your distribution  to set environment variables independent of the shell that you drive

User · Answer

Classically     profile is used by Bourne Shell  and is probably supported by Bash as a legacy measure   Again     login and    cshrc were used by C Shell - I m not sure that Bash uses them at all   The    bash profile would be used once  at login   The    bashrc script is read every time a shell is started   This is analogous to   cshrc for C Shell   One consequence is that stuff in    bashrc should be as lightweight  minimal  as possible to reduce the overhead when starting a non-login shell   I believe the    environment file is a compatibility file for Korn Shell

User · Answer

According to Josh Staiger  Mac OS X s Terminal app actually runs a login shell rather than a non-login shell by default for each new terminal window  calling  bash profile instead of  bashrc   He recommends      Most of the time you don   t want to maintain two separate config files   for login and non-login shells     when you set a PATH  you want it to   apply to both  You can fix this by sourcing  bashrc from your    bash profile file  then putting PATH and common settings in  bashrc       To do this  add the following lines to  bash profile    if   -f    bashrc    then      source    bashrc  fi       Now when you login to your   machine from a console  bashrc will be called

[shell] What's the difference between .bashrc, .bash_profile, and .environment?

Examples related to shell

Examples related to environment

Examples related to bash