Environment variables (was: Re: File permissions?)

[Tim Frost]

On Fri, 2009-12-25 at 16:03 -0600, Jim Byrnes wrote:
> Tim Frost wrote:
> > [deleted]
> 
> I wondered about the upgrading problem when I finally figured out where 
> the install put everything.  I was just starting to realize the reason 
> for the stuff under home/ and now you post confirms it for me.
> 
> You and other posters have mentioned enviromental variables like $HOME. 
>    In OS/2 they are set in config.sys, where are they set in Ubuntu?



On Unix/Linux, the environment variables for user sessions are set or
updated by a number of files that are processed during the login
process.  

$HOME is set by the login program, from the home directory specified for
your account.

The PATH is built up by a number of scripts that are run during the
login process.  Which scripts are run is influenced by:
* what shell is specified in the password file for your account
* whether this is an interactive shell

If you use bash, the login process will read any of the following files
that exist:
* /etc/profile
* /etc/bash_profile
* $HOME/.profile
* $HOME/.bash_profile
Those files are expected to be read once during login. They set up the
user environment.  Note that /etc/bash_profile and $HOME/.bash_profile
are only read if the shell name is bash (because they usually have
bash-specific code that isn't part of the standard bourne shell syntax).

Other files are read every time a new bash shell program starts.  These
are:
* /etc/bashrc
* $HOME/.bashrc


There are other files that are processed during a graphical login, to
set attributes that have meaning for that environment.


If you use one of the C shell variants, they use different files that
conform to the appropriate syntax.

> 
> Thanks,  Jim
> 

Tim


-- 
Tim Frost <timfrost at xtra.co.nz>
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