export line in .bash_profile causing weird environment issues in gome

hradtke · 05-18-2007, 05:35 PM

I have the following in my .bash_profile:

Code:

#
.bash_profile
                                                                                               
# Get the aliases and functions
if [ -f ~/.bashrc ]; then
        . ~/.bashrc
fi
                                                                                               
# User specific environment and startup programs
                                                                                               
PATH=$PATH:$HOME/bin:/usr/local/bin
                                                                                               
export PATH
unset USERNAME
                                                                                               
# Default release
release=500
echo -n "Release Level $release?: "
read release
                                                                                               
if [ -z $release ]
then
        release=500
fi
                                                                                               
export HOME=$HOME/$release
cd $HOME

The idea is that I have different release levels under my home directory.
Examples:
/home/hradtke/500
/home/hradtke/490

This script works fine if I first login to root and do a 'su - hradtke' or if I login to the command line directly. However, if I login to gnome and open terminal the .bash_profile never gets called. The culprit seems to be:

Code:

export HOME=$HOME/$release

If I remove that line then logging into gnome and opening terminal it does get called. More specifically, it appears that the HOME= statement is causing it to barf.

Any ideas about what might be going on here? Could it be tied to Xauthority in any way? Are the errors logging anywhere? I cannot seem to find anything.

Running RHEL3 (I know, I know, upgrading to 5 soon).

Thanks.

mechdave · 05-18-2007, 08:59 PM

Code:

#
.bash_profile

should look like this:

Code:

#.bash_profile

To make it all work you need to add a conditional statement to make a directory according to what release you want to use as $HOME.
Then it should all work (I think, unless I am missing something!)

hradtke · 05-19-2007, 09:44 AM

Hi mechdave,
The error you mentioned was probably a pasting error. Thanks for the help though.

I finally figured it out. I was not aware that gnome processed the .bash_profile file when you logged into gnome. The following statement was messing things up:

Code:

if [ -z $release ]
then
        release=500
fi

That would force the release to be 500 when I logged into gnome. Then the next statement would change my home directory:

Code:

export HOME=$HOME/$release

When I opened terminal, it would be looking for a .bash_profile in the new home directory ($HOME/500). Thus, it would not find the .bash_profile and not work anymore. Removing that if statement made things work perfectly.