.bashrc vs. .bash_profile

[Matthew S-H]

On Jul 20, 2005, at 4:46 PM, Vram wrote:
> On Wed, 2005-07-20 at 14:58 -0400, Matthew S-H wrote:
>> On Jul 15, 2005, at 5:30 AM, Ed Cogburn wrote:
>>> Russell Cook wrote:
>>>> On Fri, 2005-07-15 at 07:22 +0200, Dennis Kaarsemaker wrote:
>>>>> On vr, 2005-07-15 at 01:05 -0400, Matthew S-H wrote:
>>>>>> What is the difference?  Under what situations does it read
>>>>>> one over
>>>>>> the other?
>>>>>>
>>>>> .bash_profile is sourced for login shells (where you need to
>>>>> enter a
>>>>> password) and .bashrc for the rest. So .bash_profile should
>>>>> contain
>>>>> thing only to be done once per session and .bashrc should
>>>>> contain things
>>>>> to be done for every terminal you open.
>>>> Hi Dennis,
>>>> that makes sense, but for noobies, how do we tell what needs to be
>>>> run
>>>> for ever terminal. For instance the path extension statement I was
>>>> looking at. Is the path global for that login, or only that shell?
>>> If you're lazy, and don't want to waste time trying to figure this
>>> all out
>>> (its because of maintaining backwards compatibility with 30+ years
>>> of
>>> Bourne shells that "this" has gotten so complicated - given the
>>> speed of
>>> machines today there is no reason to maintain this distinction we
>>> still
>>> have), and don't care if your machine wastes a few cycles and a
>>> small
>>> fraction of a second when starting up (how big a fraction depends on
>>> what
>>> stuff you're doing at startup of a shell), just run the same thing
>>> for
>>> both.  :)
>>>
>>>
>>> Have ".bash_profile" (also known as ".bash_login") for login shells,
>>> and
>>> ".bashrc" for all other shells just source the same file, like say
>>> ".bash_startup", and have the 2 previous files just have "source
>>> ~/.bash_startup" as the only line in them.  Then put whatever
>>> settings you
>>> need in that one file, and "forget" about the other two.
>>>
>>>
>>> There are variations on this, whatever suits your preferences.  I
>>> have a
>>> single file in /etc/ that is sourced by both of those files above.
>>> Others
>>> put most of their settings in .bashrc, and have the login shell
>>> source that
>>> as the last command in its .bash_login, etc. etc.
>>>
>>>
>>> About the only thing that really makes sense being in one
>>> of .bash_login
>>> or .bash_profile, but not in .bashrc are commands that affect the
>>> display
>>> of the command line prompt.  However, if you're using midnight
>>> commander,
>>> it unfortunately uses a non-login shell for the shell line it shows
>>> at the
>>> bottom, even though its used just like a login shell, so for that
>>> reason
>>> and for laziness, I just have both "types" of shells set themselves
>>> up
>>> exactly the same way.  Seems to work fine, haven't seen any smoke
>>> coming
>>> from the case yet...  :)
>>>
>>
>>
>> Just an alternative that I am doing now that simplifies things even
>> more:
>>
>>
>> sudo ln -s /etc/bash_profile /etc/bashrc
>> ln -s ~/.bash_profile ~/.bashrc
>>
>>
>> That simplifies things even more, I think.
>> Now, you don't even have to remember which is the original.
>> Also, if you wan't, you could make hard links instead of symbolic
>> links by removing the "-s" option.
>>
>>
>> If I am wrong about this working, I'd appreciate it if someone would
>> tell me before I F--K my system up.
>>
>>
>>
>
>
>
> Don't do it...
>
> There is a time and a place for everything.
>
>
> It would be like looking the refrigerator and the freezer every time.
> The milk is in the refrigerator.  Why look in the freezer?
>
> The system is set up by folks who spent A LOT of time thinking about
> this.
>
> So <and this is not a personal comment.  All new users go through  
> this>
> MR/MISS I have been using the system for three days now I know a  
> better
> way..
>
> Trust the system to know what is best for you..
>
> Remove the link..
>
> YMMV
>
> Good Luck
>
> and OF course You disregard my comments as an OLD SYSTEM ADMINISTRATOR
> who has spent too much time at the keyboard.

I was totally expecting to be wrong.  But I just want to know one thing:
why is it a bad thing to use a link?

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