MacOS – have to source ~/.bash_login every time I open Terminal

Short Answer:

The problem is caused by a (potentially) expensive ASL system log lookup. To see this in action, run sudo fs_usage | grep 'asl.*login' in a Terminal window, then open a new Terminal window.

To solve the problem, configure Terminal to launch a non-standard shell:

1. Create a symlink to your preferred shell. E.g.: sudo ln -s /bin/bash /usr/local/bin/bash
2. Open Terminal Preferences and select the "General" tab.
3. Select "Shells open with: Command" and enter the symlink you created in step 1. E.g. "/usr/local/bin/bash".

Note 1: You may also need to add bash and -bash to the process list at "Terminal Preferences > Profiles > Shell > Ask before closing".

Note 2: /usr/local/bin is writable in OS X 10.11 (El Capitan) Rootless mode.

To verify the fix:

• Open a new Terminal window.
• "Last Login:" should not be displayed at the top
• Open the inspector (Command + I) and select the Info tab.
• The command should read login -pfq username /usr/bin/bash or login -pfql username ...

Important: If the login command does not include the -q parameter, then you have not fixed the problem.

You can also use sudo fs_usage | grep 'asl.*login' to verify that /var/log/asl is not accessed when opening a new Terminal window.

Details:

There are a number of bugs at play here.

The actual cause of the slowness is /usr/bin/login, which by default will display the date of your last login. To get this last login date, it searches the ASL (Apple System Log) database at /var/log/asl/. These log files can be very heavily fragmented and it's this file fragmentation that causes the delay when opening a new window or tab. (Bug 1)

The only way to suppress the ASL search for last login is to pass the -q parameter to /usr/bin/login. The .hushlogin file will also suppress the "Last Login" display, but it does not suppress the expensive ASL search. (Bug 2)

Terminal always uses /usr/bin/login to launch each new window/shell. There is no option to launch a shell directly nor is there a way to directly control the parameters passed to /usr/bin/login (Bug 3).

As it turns out, Terminal will pass the -q parameter to /usr/bin/login when it is configured to use a non-standard shell. (Bug 4)

The -q parameter is what we need to avoid the problem, hence the symlink to /usr/local/bin/bash.

You should also look at /etc/profile file, as it may have references to /etc/profile.d/rvm.sh.

It's also worth it to read the manual for bash, as it lists all files bash will look at for configuration. This will be towards the end of the man page. To read it, in Terminal.app type man bash.

Finally, you can run, again in Terminal.app, the following command:

grep -R 'rvm.sh' /etc

This will look for all files inside /etc, recursively, that contain rvm.sh text in them.