Ubuntu – bashrc or bash_profile

bashscriptsstartup

I know the difference between the two bash login scripts:

.bashrc is run only by "non-login" shells.

.bash_profile (or .bash_login or .profile) is executed by "login" shells.

Does anyone have some good examples of what things that are a better fit for login-only execution, such that I'd only put them in .bash_profile, but they wouldn't really make sense in .bashrc?

(I know most of us source .bashrc out of .bash_profile, so there doesn't seem to be much point in the opposite question…)

Best Answer

Since a .bashrc is for non-login shells, I avoid any commands which echo to the screen. I've also run into experiences where echo statements in .bashrc will cause sftp and rsync commands to fail (and maybe scp commands as well).

# Print some information as we log in
# -s: OS Name -n: Node name -r: OS Release
uname -snr
uptime

Also, you generally won't run ssh-agent from a non-interactive shell. So I have this in .bash_profile.

if [ -f ~/.ssh/ssh-agent ]; then . ~/.ssh/ssh-agent; fi

Related Solutions

Ubuntu – How to the script determine whether it’s being run by bash or dash

You can make the fact that $BASH_VERSION is blank in dash work for you:

if [ "$BASH_VERSION" = '' ]; then
    echo "This is dash."
else
    echo "This is bash."
fi

Ubuntu – Why ~/.bash_profile is not getting sourced when opening a terminal

~/.bash_profile is only sourced by bash when started in login mode. That is typically when you log in at the console (Ctrl+Alt+F1..F6), connect via ssh, or use sudo -i or su - to run commands as another user.

When you log in graphically, ~/.profile will be specifically sourced by the script that launches gnome-session (or whichever desktop environment you're using). So ~/.bash_profile is not sourced at all when you log in graphically.

When you open a terminal, the terminal starts bash in (non-login) interactive mode, which means it will source ~/.bashrc.

The right place for you to put these environment variables is in ~/.profile, and the effect should be apparent next time you log in.

Sourcing ~/.bash_profile from ~/.bashrc is the wrong solution. It's supposed to be the other way around; ~/.bash_profile should source ~/.bashrc.

See DotFiles for a more thorough explanation, including some history of why it is like it is.

(On a side note, when installing openjdk via apt, symlinks should be set up by the package, so that you don't really need to set JAVA_HOME or change PATH)

Best Answer

Related Solutions

Ubuntu – How to the script determine whether it’s being run by bash or dash

Ubuntu – Why ~/.bash_profile is not getting sourced when opening a terminal

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