Re: A bit of Linux advice yet again??

>>>>> "Norman" == Norman Dunbar <Norman.Dunbar_at_lfs.co.uk> writes:

 Norman> Hi Tim, I'm not 100% sure, but isn't /etc/profile always run
 Norman> as it sets up stuff you (the sys admin) want setting up for
 Norman> all users, and then it looks for the others. It certainly
 Norman> does on my HP servers - /etc/profile then $HOME/.profile
 Norman> where $HOME is appropriate to the user logging in - obviously
 Norman> !

 Norman> /etc/profile ~/.bash_profile ~/.bash_login ~/.profile

 Norman> BUT it only looks for these files iff it is a login
 Norman> shell. Under X, unless your .xsession has the --login option
 Norman> set, all terminals (xterms et. al.) you open are opened as
 Norman> just a sub-shell of your X session and therefore not as a
 Norman> login shell (as you are already logged in).

/etc/profile is always run for login shells - I don't think it is run for non-login shells, but all non-login shells are usually a sub-shell of a login shell somewhere in the chain. However, I would have to check the bash man page to be sure on that. I am certain the $HOME/.bash_profile et. al. are only checked for login shells and it stops after the first match it finds e.g. if you have both .bash_profile and .profile in your home dir, the .profile will never get sourced because it will stop after reading .bash_profile.

Personally, I make a symlink from .bash_profile to .profile and then forget about which one it is meant to be :-)

Tim

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Tim Cross
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