GVim does not source .bashrc, .bash_profile, or .profile from non-interactive non-login shell

bashbashrcgvimshell

I have the following on my .vimrc

set shell=C:/cygwin/bin/bash
set shellcmdflag=-c
set shellxquote=\"

So the shell I am using is non-interactive and non-login.
I thought that non-login shells source .bashrc, but that does not seem to be the case. I do not want to make my shell interactive or login. Is there a way for me source .bashrc in other way?
My .bash_profile already sources .bashrc

Best Answer

What you describe is normal behavior. Starting bash with the -c option will launch an non-interactive, non-login shell. This means that bash will not source any of its classic configuration files but the variable $BASH_ENV instead. As explained in the bash man page:

non-interactive, non-login shell:
When bash is started non-interactively, to run a shell script, for example, it looks for the variable BASH_ENV in the environment, expands its value if it appears there, and uses the expanded value as the name of a file to read and execute. Bash behaves as if the following command were executed:
```
if [ -n "$BASH_ENV" ]; then . "$BASH_ENV"; fi
```
interactive, login shell:

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.
interactive, non-login shell

When an interactive shell that is not a login shell is started, bash reads and executes commands from /etc/bash.bashrc and ~/.bashrc, if these files exist. This may be inhibited by using the --norc option. The --rcfile file option will force bash to read and execute commands from file instead of /etc/bash.bashrc and ~/.bashrc.

So, if you want your non-interactive, non-login shell to source ~/.bahsrc, you will need to set the value of BASH_ENV to ~/.bashrc. Add this line to your ~/.bashrc or ~/.profile files:

export BASH_ENV=~/.bashrc

Related Solutions

Bash shell: how to reconcile portable configuration files and GUI terminal start-up types (login or interactive)

The most common problem caused by misuse of shell startup files is that if you define environment variables in .bashrc as opposed to .profile, they are not defined in applications that are not launched from a shell in a terminal but rather from a GUI menu.

Defining environment variables from .bashrc is generally not a good idea, but that's primarily because it's generally useless as the variables should already have been set at login time. It can cause a problem in practice if you (or an application) have deliberately changed the value of a variable (e.g. PATH) in a program and you launch a shell from that program and expect the setting to have remained the same.

You can avoid the problem of environment variables being reset by defining a “sentinel” value, and not defining anything if the sentinel value is set:

if [ -z "$JMLANE_PROFILE_READ" ]; then
  export ...
  export JMLANE_PROFILE_READ=1
fi

Another problem caused by terminals starting login shells is that there are things that should only be done once when you log in, for example starting a password agent (e.g. ssh-agent), or initiating a session (e.g. running startx in certain circumstances). The sentinel variable avoids these issues.

A shell inside a terminal is always interactive. As long as you source .bashrc from .bash_profile when the shell is interactive, you don't need to worry about the terminal starting a login shell.

An additional wart of bash's startup file handling is that .bashrc is read by non-interactive shells invoked by rshd or sshd. For example, when you do rsync somefile host.example.com:, if your login shell on host.example.com is bash, you can use .bashrc there to set the path to include rsync. You can tell you're in this situation because .bashrc is read from a non-interactive shell.

## .bashrc
if [[ $- != *i* ]]; then
  # either .bashrc was executed explicitly or this is a noninteractive rsh/ssh session
fi

Linux – Where should I export an environment variable so that all combinations of bash/dash, interactive/non-interactive, login/non-login, will pick it up

Shell invocation is a bit of a complicated thing. The bash and dash man pages has INVOCATION sections about this.

In summary they says (there is more detail in the man page, you should read it):

When bash is                   | it reads
-------------------------------|----------
login shell                    | /etc/profile and then the first of ~/.bash_profile, ~/.bash_login or ~/.profile that exists.
                               |
interactive non-login shell    | /etc/bash.bashrc then ~/.bashrc
                               |
non-interactive shell          | The contents of $BASH_ENV (if it exists)
                               |
interactive (as "sh")          | The contents of $ENV (if it exists)

When dash is                   | it reads
-------------------------------|---------
login shell                    | /etc/profile then .profile
                               |
interactive shell              | The contents of ENV (it it exists, can be set in .profile as well as in initial environment)

I don't know about other shells offhand as I never use any of them. Your best bet might be to set a couple environment variables to point at the common location script and manually source that (when appropriate) in the couple of cases that doesn't cover.

Best Answer

Related Solutions

Bash shell: how to reconcile portable configuration files and GUI terminal start-up types (login or interactive)

Linux – Where should I export an environment variable so that all combinations of bash/dash, interactive/non-interactive, login/non-login, will pick it up

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