what exactly is a profile file and where do i go to find it?

edit:
How do you explain the contents of the command 'cat .profile'

probably it is /etc/profile, but without context your question has no real meaning...

Welcome to the forum.

You need to give us some idea what profile you are looking for, there are many. Please also tell us what distro and version you are running. Without this type of information, we can only guess what you are looking for.

How do you explain the contents of the command 'cat .profile'

The command is cat. From the man page;
The command dumps the contents of the file to 'standard out', usually this is your console.

The file is called 'profile'. The period before the name makes the file hidden.

If you want to know more about the contense of the file, you will have to post the output.

Hi and welcome to LQ, caseyneedshelp101.

Understand that LQ is here to help you learn. Members here are volunteers who similarly volunteer their expertise with answering questions, however also the expectation is that you are learning and trying on your own.

What do you know about the "cat" command? Have you looked it up? Have you tried to do a man page listing on the cat command? Are you typing at a terminal on a Linux machine? Do you know about how to get the man page for commands?

The command you've cited is a very simple command, and it does show in the man pages on Linux machines. Better that you read the manual page for cat versus us describe it to you. Better also that you use the cat command to see what it does for you. Note that there are other commands similar to cat which you can try, more and less are their names.

An important detail is that you need to be in a directory where the file is located, or specify the full directory name where the file is located for the command to be of any use. Typically people change to the directory where a file is, verify that a file is there, and then use the cat command to view the file.

Do you know how to change directories? Do you know how to list the files in a directory? Do you know how to list the hidden files in a directory?

Once again, are you typing at a command prompt, also known as a terminal window? If you are just asking a question as you read about something, you are likely to be confused a great deal.

Others have cited that you should provide the Linux distribution which you are using and the context of your question. We don't know if you are even at the point where you are typing commands into a terminal.

thanks b x

see man bash, you can read about .profile, just look for the word itself

Hi 'casey'! Welcome! Here's a whole book I just found.
Feel free to tell us a bit about your Linux 'journey': computers used, goals/interests.

Here's a LQ Thread that mentions this #1rated book. ~/.profile is on p.129/132
Here's another LQ Thread where I posted a link to a free book I found&liked. p30

Several of the most popular 'distro's have reference books; which 'distro' do you use?