[SOLVED] $HOME/.bash_profile vs. $HOME/.bashrc: few questions

kikinovak · 10-19-2015, 09:10 AM

Hi,

I'm currently reading through a pile of books about the Bash shell and taking extensive notes. Over the years, I've learned scripting on the job, and I've decided to get a better and more "academic" grasp on it.

Right now I'm experimenting on a vanilla Slackware 14.1 installation. According to my book "Programmation Shell sous Unix/Linux", .bash_profile can be named .bash_login or .profile, and is supposed to contain definitions of variables as well as their eventual exports, as well as some system parameter definitions like umask. What .bash_profile is not supposed to contain is shell options and aliases.

So to begin some experimentation, I put a custom PATH in ~/.bash_profile:

Code:

PATH=$PATH:/sbin:$HOME/bin:$HOME/Scripts

Testing is conclusive. The PATH variable is redefined in login shells as well as in non-login shells. In runlevel 3 I can log in, and echo $PATH shows the additional paths. When I fire up WindowMaker (startx) and open an XTerm, I get the same result. Same thing for an SSH session opened from a remote machine.

But here's something weird. Next thing I add a custom PS1 to ~/.bash_profile, like this:

Code:

# Command prompt for non-root users
GREEN='\[\033[0;32m\]'
WHITE='\[\033[1;37m\]'
NC='\[\033[0;m\]'
PS1="$GREEN[$WHITE\u$NC@$WHITE\h$NC:$WHITE\W$GREEN] \$ $NC"

After reconnecting, the login shell uses the newly defined PS1 OK. Same thing for a shell opened from a remote machine. But when I launch WindowMaker and open XTerm, I get a different command prompt:

Code:

bash-4.2$ _

So how does it come that PATH gets read correctly by my various shells, but not PS1?

Cheers,

Niki

ponce · 10-19-2015, 09:20 AM

EDIT: sorry for the (probably unrelated) noise I wrote before: most probably you are talking about this.

so, if you want your PS1 to be used also by your shells under X you are better of defining it in ~/.bashrc (and eventually source this also in ~/.bash_profile).

kikinovak · 10-19-2015, 11:32 AM

Thanks, ponce.

I guess the best solution is to simply source .bashrc in .bash_profile:

Code:

# $HOME/.bash_profile

# $HOME/.bashrc
if [ -f ~/.bashrc ]; then
  . ~/.bashrc
fi

And then put everything in .bashrc:

Code:

# $HOME/.bashrc

# PATH
PATH=$PATH:/sbin

# Alias
alias ls='ls --color=auto'
alias ll='ls -al'
alias ..='cd ..'
alias ...='cd ../..'
alias cp='cp -i'
alias rm='rm -i'
alias mv='mv -i'
alias vi='vim'
alias uman='GROFF_ENCODING=utf8 man'

# PS1
GREEN='\[\033[0;32m\]'
WHITE='\[\033[1;37m\]'
NC='\[\033[0;m\]'
PS1="$GREEN[$WHITE\u$NC@$WHITE\h$NC:$WHITE\W$GREEN] \$ $NC"

# Vim 
EDITOR=vim
VISUAL=$EDITOR
export EDITOR VISUAL

Cheers,

Niki

Richard Cranium · 10-19-2015, 08:08 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by kikinovak

Hi,

I'm currently reading through a pile of books about the Bash shell and taking extensive notes. Over the years, I've learned scripting on the job, and I've decided to get a better and more "academic" grasp on it.

Right now I'm experimenting on a vanilla Slackware 14.1 installation. According to my book "Programmation Shell sous Unix/Linux", .bash_profile can be named .bash_login or .profile, and is supposed to contain definitions of variables as well as their eventual exports, as well as some system parameter definitions like umask. What .bash_profile is not supposed to contain is shell options and aliases.

So to begin some experimentation, I put a custom PATH in ~/.bash_profile:

Code:

PATH=$PATH:/sbin:$HOME/bin:$HOME/Scripts

Testing is conclusive. The PATH variable is redefined in login shells as well as in non-login shells. In runlevel 3 I can log in, and echo $PATH shows the additional paths. When I fire up WindowMaker (startx) and open an XTerm, I get the same result. Same thing for an SSH session opened from a remote machine.

But here's something weird. Next thing I add a custom PS1 to ~/.bash_profile, like this:

Code:

# Command prompt for non-root users
GREEN='\[\033[0;32m\]'
WHITE='\[\033[1;37m\]'
NC='\[\033[0;m\]'
PS1="$GREEN[$WHITE\u$NC@$WHITE\h$NC:$WHITE\W$GREEN] \$ $NC"

After reconnecting, the login shell uses the newly defined PS1 OK. Same thing for a shell opened from a remote machine. But when I launch WindowMaker and open XTerm, I get a different command prompt:

Code:

bash-4.2$ _

So how does it come that PATH gets read correctly by my various shells, but not PS1?

Cheers,

Niki

If you didn't launch xterm as a login shell, you won't load anything in ~/.bash_profile

~/.bashrc should be loaded by *any* bash invocation by you; that includes any scripts that you run.

a4z · 10-20-2015, 12:24 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by kikinovak

Thanks, ponce.

I guess the best solution is to simply source .bashrc in .bash_profile:

...

And then put everything in .bashrc:

...

I think this will double your PATH, just to mention one negative side effect
PS1 in bashrc is ok, as aliases

having both with the same content is not useful
they have different functions, unify them by sourcing one into the other disables that.
profile is for all, rc is mor dynamic and for the next, you can change it and it will work for all next sessions, profile needs log out log in
you can make use of that
btw
if a program/windowmanager starts bash with --noprofile or --norc both does not help
I think KDE konsole is good in ignoring some of the init files

kikinovak · 10-20-2015, 01:30 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by a4z

I think this will double your PATH, just to mention one negative side effect
PS1 in bashrc is ok, as aliases

No, PATH is not doubled. Tried it both in login shells and non-login shells.

kikinovak · 10-20-2015, 01:53 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by a4z

I think this will double your PATH, just to mention one negative side effect
PS1 in bashrc is ok, as aliases

Here's a more orthodox solution though, which works in all shells, login and non-login. Simply move PATH from .bashrc to .bash_profile:

Code:

# $HOME/.bash_profile

# PATH
PATH=$PATH:/sbin

# $HOME/.bashrc
if [ -f ~/.bashrc ]; then
  . ~/.bashrc
fi

All the other stuff (PS1, aliases, EDITOR, VISUAL) goes in .bashrc.

dunne · 10-20-2015, 02:05 AM

Quote:

But when I launch WindowMaker and open XTerm

Xterms are login shells by default, so they won't read .bash_profile. To make them login shells, put:

Code:

XTerm*loginShell:true

in

Code:

.Xdefaults

.