A couple of points to (hopefully) clarify things:

. <file> tells bash to source a particular file. What this means is bash basically executes the contents of the other file (there are some complications regarding subshells and the like that sourcing, as opposed to just plain executing, handles, but let's not worry about them at present).

The objective here is to have one set of common set-up commands that get executed for both login and nonlogin shells. For this to happen, we need to put the commands into one file. In my setup, I put all my personal set-up commands in .bashrc. But this is a problem, since then they aren't invoked in login shells. So I add the . ~/.bashrc to my .bash_profile to make .bash_profile run .bashrc and that way, .bashrc gets sourced regardless of whether I'm running a login or nonlogin shell. You could also do it the other way around and have .bashrc source your .bash_profile (where your custom setup commands would be located). Either way will work.

So, to summarize:

-- put your custom setup commands in either .bashrc or .bash_profile
-- have the other file source the file you put your commands into using . <filename>

If this does not work, post the exact errors that you get. Hopefully this helps a little and explains a bit of what's going on.

Thanks for your reply I understood the what and why but have not been able to get the how to work.
Will try again maybe I missed something.

WD

well putting

if [ -f ~/.bash_profile ]; then
. ~ /.bash_profile
fi

in my ~/.bashrc file didn't work.

after altering my user .bashrc as above I logout and try to login again I enter the user name hit enter, enter the password get the " your last login and date..." then "you have mail"
then instead of going to the user prompt I get returned to the original login prompt.

My setup stuff is in ~/.bash_profile which is why I am trying to source it from ~/.bashrc

WD

Can you do 'ls -l ~/.bash_profile .bashrc' then ... if your .bash_profile is a symlink it will not be sourced (because of the if [ -f ~/.bash_profile ] test). This seems unlikely, but worth a check. You can also put an echo statement into each file to see if/when it executes, e.g. in your .bashrc put:

echo .bashrc is running...

ls -l ~/.bash_profile returns the expected listing

this is my .bashrc file with 2 echos
when attempting to login the first echo "bashrc1 is running" repeats like
an endless loop until it kicks out back to the login prompt???
second echo " bashrc2 is running" doesnt appear at all.

# .bashrc

# User specific aliases and functions

echo "bashrc1 is running"

alias mntusb='sh mntusb.sh'
alias quit='sh quit.sh'
alias reup='sh reup.sh'

# Source global definitions
if [ -r ~/.bash_profile ]; then
. ~/.bash_profile
fi
echo " bashrc2 is running"

WD

What do you expect, and can we see it?

What's the content of .bash_profile, then?
There must be SOMETHING odd ...


Cheers,
Tink

Its ok I figured it out .bashrc was sourcing .bash_profile and .bashprofile was sourcing .bashrc
so endless loop once I commented out the sourcing in .bash_profile everything works the way it should although.... the prompt changes from

[xxx@jekyll xxx]#
to
-bash-2.05b$ I can change this using the PS1 or 2 shell variables ?


WD

PS thanks for all the help Tink and btmiller

PPS you get up early Tink

DOH :)

Sure you can ... just check where they're being
re-set, too.

Indeed ... ~ 0520 ;)
But I'm home from work ~ 1620, too!


Cheers,
Tink