aliases in .profile don't work?

[Marius Gedminas]

On Wed, Dec 08, 2010 at 02:46:25PM -0800, Knute Johnson wrote:
> Anybody know why putting an alias in ~/.profile doesn't work but putting 
> it in ~/.bash_aliases does?

~/.profile is sourced for login sessions only (both ssh logins and gdm
logins, the latter thanks to Ubuntu's /etc/gdm/Xsession).  Aliases
aren't exported via the environment, so any new shell sessions -- such
as those you get by opening a terminal window -- do not inherit them.

~/.bash_aliases is sourced for every new shell session.

> ~/.bash_profile or ~/.bash_login do NOT 
> exist.  Adding a change to the PATH works just fine in ~/.profile.

PATH is usually exported via the environment, so setting it in ~/.profile
is sufficient.

Marius Gedminas
-- 
Did you hear that the author of _Nitpicking for Dummies_ has just
received it back from the publisher with the 182nd set of editorial
markups?
		-- Bill Snyder
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