Not able to persist changes to prompt

issacnewton · 08-15-2017, 03:15 AM

Hello

I have windows 8.1 as host and inside VirtualBox, I am using CentOS 7.2.1511. Now from windows I use putty to log in to linux once I fire up the virtual machine. Now I want to change the prompt on permanent basis. For that purpose, I need to change .bash_profile file. This works fine from putty. But if I open a terminal inside virtualbox, I can't seem to persist the prompt change with changes to .bash_profile file. I need to make changes to .bashrc file for that to happen. So why terminal inside virtualbox is behaving differently from the putty terminal ?

EDIT: Found a question on stackexchange which seems to answer my question
https://apple.stackexchange.com/ques...ile-and-bashrc

Thanks

dejank · 08-15-2017, 05:04 AM

If you want to have persistent prompts, as well as other things, like aliases and everything else that you want to customize, no matter if you use login, or no login shell, best idea would be to have 2 files in your home directory, .profile and .bashrc. All customization you do in .bashrc and in .profile you add line to source .bashrc file.

issacnewton · 08-15-2017, 05:13 AM

Ok, thanks dejank. And how do I add that line ?

dejank · 08-15-2017, 08:14 AM

Open .profile file with some text editor that you use, if it does not exist make it. Line you want it:

Code:

source "$HOME/.bashrc"

But, to make it work bit better and just in case:

Code:

if [ -n "$BASH_VERSION" ]; then
    # include .bashrc if it exists
    if [ -f "$HOME/.bashrc" ]; then
        . "$HOME/.bashrc"
    fi
fi

For bit of reading about difference between .bashrc, .bash_profile and .profile: https://superuser.com/questions/7894...ile-etc#789465

issacnewton · 08-15-2017, 08:26 AM

Thanks dejank. Will read that link