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lovat

Member

From: Shanghai

Registered: 2008-01-03

Posts: 41

Does login shell reads ~/.bashrc file upon startup ?

A lot of books and manuals say that a login shell reads /etc/profile and ~/.bash_profile upon startup .
see:http://www.linuxfromscratch.org/blfs/vi … ofile.html

I add NAME = "tom" to ~/.bashrc ,save and exit . when I login again ,I get a login shell right ? I type echo $NAME
,then I see the output is tom. It means a login shell also reads ~/.bashrc  /etc/bashrc . Is that right ?

Last edited by lovat (2008-01-25 14:53:21)

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Do not use Linux as desktop.

Mr Green

Forum Fellow

From: U.K.

Registered: 2003-12-21

Posts: 5,914

Website

Re: Does login shell reads ~/.bashrc file upon startup ?

yes .... if you add to .bashrc [user] it will load at boot.... or you can use source ~/.bashrc

There is a thread on bashrc on forum you may want to look at too

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Mr Green

Gilneas

Member

From: Netherlands

Registered: 2006-10-22

Posts: 320

Re: Does login shell reads ~/.bashrc file upon startup ?

Try calling it with --login and without.

When  an  interactive  shell  that is not a login shell is started, bash reads and executes commands from ~/.bashrc, if that file exists.

Generally, having your .bash_profile say source ~/.bashrc removes any confusion.

When bash is invoked as an interactive login shell, or as a non-interactive shell with the --login option, it first  reads  and  executes
    commands  from  the  file  /etc/profile,  if that file exists.  After reading that file, it looks for ~/.bash_profile, ~/.bash_login, and
    ~/.profile, in that order, and reads and executes commands from the first one that exists and is readable.  The --noprofile option may be
    used when the shell is started to inhibit this behavior.

Ramses de Norre

Member

From: Leuven - Belgium

Registered: 2007-03-27

Posts: 1,289

Re: Does login shell reads ~/.bashrc file upon startup ?

It seems logical to me that .bashrc is sourced by any bash shell, .bash_profile only by login shells.

Gilneas

Member

From: Netherlands

Registered: 2006-10-22

Posts: 320

Re: Does login shell reads ~/.bashrc file upon startup ?

It seems logical to me that .bashrc is sourced by any bash shell, .bash_profile only by login shells.

Don't forget non-interactive shells. They don't read anything by default as it should be.

T-Dawg

Forum Fellow

From: Charlotte, NC

Registered: 2005-01-29

Posts: 2,736

Re: Does login shell reads ~/.bashrc file upon startup ?

try

export NAME="tom"

instead. 'export' allows that variable to be 'exported' to the current shell and all those spawned from it.
Normally .bash_profile calls on .bashrc which normally calls on /etc/bash/bashrc which is where it gets all its important system variables plus any extras you define in it.