How to execute source /etc/profile at start up?

Iyyappan · 03-29-2012, 10:16 AM

How to execute source /etc/profile at start up. When i reboot, machine must execute source /etc/profile. Bcoz, i have added paths in /etc/profile, its not reflecting upon startup. Only after source /etc/profile command, all works.

sundialsvcs · 03-29-2012, 10:22 AM

The source command instructs the shell to read the contents of a file as a series of commands. The aforementioned file is automatically sourced (by the bash shell, at least) when the shell starts (in certain modes... see man bash). If you do so later, it has the same effect as it did the first time, and this can be useful if you want to restore the environment variables to (more or less...) their initial state.

There is no "arkane magick" here.

pan64 · 03-30-2012, 03:55 AM

source works in tcsh, but /etc/profile is not evaluated by tcsh. When you use tcsh you should put those settings into /etc/csh.cshrc and /etc/csh.login

onebuck · 03-30-2012, 06:44 AM

Hi,

Quote:

Originally Posted by Iyyappan

How to execute source /etc/profile at start up. When i reboot, machine must execute source /etc/profile. Bcoz, i have added paths in /etc/profile, its not reflecting upon startup. Only after source /etc/profile command, all works.

Please do not resurrect old threads. You resurrected a 9 year old thread. Moved your post & related posts to a new thread.

catkin · 03-30-2012, 08:49 AM

What do you want to achieve? The boot scripts are not designed to use /etc/profile which is a logon shell customisation file.

Iyyappan · 03-30-2012, 09:20 AM

Actually what my issue is, in /etc/profile i have set java_home, java_path. Its working only if i give source /etc/profile. I rebooted the machine and checked, but still its not working. I have to key source /etc/profile everytime i reboot the machine, so that the users can work thereafter. This issue is only with one machine. I have done the same in many machines before, i have never faced this kinda issue b4

Iyyappan · 03-30-2012, 09:25 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by onebuck

Hi,

Please do not resurrect old threads. You resurrected a 9 year old thread. Moved your post & related posts to a new thread.

Hi i am sorry for that. Will open in new threads from now on

catkin · 03-30-2012, 10:07 AM

You mean that the users have the problem after logging on?

Iyyappan · 03-30-2012, 10:18 AM

If i do not key source /etc/profile after reboot, the users are facing difficulty while starting tomcat, it says there is no java environmental variables defined. When i type java and javac, i get o/p. Only the env variables are not getting set.

catkin · 03-30-2012, 10:13 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Iyyappan

If i do not key source /etc/profile after reboot, the users are facing difficulty while starting tomcat, it says there is no java environmental variables defined. When i type java and javac, i get o/p. Only the env variables are not getting set.

Is this after the users have logged on? Are they trying to start tomcat themselves?

If so, what is the user's logon shell (as specified in the last field of their line in /etc/passwd)?

pan64 · 03-31-2012, 03:37 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Iyyappan

If i do not key source /etc/profile after reboot, the users are facing difficulty while starting tomcat, it says there is no java environmental variables defined. When i type java and javac, i get o/p. Only the env variables are not getting set.

As I have already written if your users uses tcsh as login shell the file /etc/profile has no any meaning. This is normal, this is the expected behavior. You need to put those settings into /etc/csh.cshrc or /etc/csh.login, because they are evaluated during the login process.

source /etc/profile is problematic anyway, because /etc/profile is used by bash, but bash does not understand the command source.

jschiwal · 03-31-2012, 03:59 AM

Did you read the /etc/profile file? On SLED, it may start with:

# /etc/profile for SuSE Linux
#
# PLEASE DO NOT CHANGE /etc/profile. There are chances that your changes
# will be lost during system upgrades. Instead use /etc/profile.local for
# your local settings, favourite global aliases, VISUAL and EDITOR
# variables, etc ...

Also check if you have an /etc/profile.d/ directory. It will contain startup scripts for the shells your system supports. The scripts with .sh extensions are sourced by /etc/profile (if the sticky bit isn't set on my system).

If a user uses tcsh, csh, pdksh or another shell, another file besides /etc/profile may be sourced instead. So you need to edit the script used for those shells as well.

---

Another possibility is that you didn't export the PATH variable after making your changes.

Iyyappan · 04-02-2012, 12:04 AM

This is what i have in /etc/profile. The same entries are there in another machine which works fine. Only in this mac alone i am facing issue. We use only bash shell.

export JAVA_HOME=/usr/jdk1.6.0_21
export JAVA_PATH=/usr/jdk1.6.0_21/bin
ORACLE_BASE=/opt/oracle
ORACLE_HOME=$ORACLE_BASE/112
ORACLE_SID=ORCL
LD_LIBRARY_PATH=$ORACLE_HOME/lib
export ORACLE_BASE ORACLE_HOME ORACLE_SID LD_LIBRARY_PATH
export PATH=/usr/sbin:/usr/kerberos/sbin:/usr/kerberos/bin:/usr/bin:/bin:/opt/oracle/112/bin:/sbin

In /etc/profile.d directory i have following files, should i create a new file? I use bash shell only
colorls.csh glib2.csh gnome-ssh-askpass.csh krb5-workstation.csh lang.csh less.csh mpi-selector.csh vim.csh which-2.sh
colorls.sh glib2.sh gnome-ssh-askpass.sh krb5-workstation.sh lang.sh less.sh mpi-selector.sh vim.sh

pan64 · 04-02-2012, 12:44 AM

you know, the problem is that the keyword export is unknown for tcsh and source is unknown for bash.
So source /etc/profile will give you syntax error either in tcsh or in bash.

If you can execute this command it means you have something special in your environment.

By the way, if you use bash than /etc/profile is evaluated, you can insert an "echo /etc/profile" line at the end of the file to see it.
Back to the original problem:

Quote:

Bcoz, i have added paths in /etc/profile, its not reflecting upon startup.

maybe the PATH variable is overwritten in the local ~/.bashrc file (or somewhere else)

catkin · 04-02-2012, 10:40 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by pan64

you know, the problem is that the keyword export is unknown for tcsh and source is unknown for bash.

bash has source

Code:

c@CW8:~$ help source
source: source filename [arguments]
    Execute commands from a file in the current shell.
    
    Read and execute commands from FILENAME in the current shell.  The
    entries in $PATH are used to find the directory containing FILENAME.
    If any ARGUMENTS are supplied, they become the positional parameters
    when FILENAME is executed.
    
    Exit Status:
    Returns the status of the last command executed in FILENAME; fails if
    FILENAME cannot be read.
c@CW8:~$ bash --version
GNU bash, version 4.1.7(2)-release (x86_64-slackware-linux-gnu)
[snip]