Restoring/Rebuilding Obliterated /etc/profile

wlerin · 08-02-2009, 05:59 PM

So... I was messing around with cat __ __ > ___ the other day, trying to combine several nifty little files into a single /etc/profile, ... and somehow I ended up with only the last file, it having apparently overwritten everything else, including the original /etc/profile (which, being an idiot, I didn't back up before trying this).

So, long story short, my /etc/profile now consists solely of alias definitions and a few environment variables I've tried to add after the fact to fix the locale errors I keep getting every time I run something.

What should be in this file? Where could I find a replacement, or, if not a replacement, at least some idea what I need to put in it?

I'm running ubuntu-server jaunty, with xfce4 installed because I got tired of using my 10 yr old laptop and turned my server into a desktop machine.

brianL · 08-02-2009, 06:14 PM

You could try copying the /etc/profile from your Ubuntu CD.

neonsignal · 08-02-2009, 10:08 PM

You may find a version of it in '/usr/share/base-files/profile'. However, '/etc/profile' may also have changes depending on what is installed (eg X11), mainly to the default paths.

So /etc/profile will look something like this:

Code:

# /etc/profile: system-wide .profile file for the Bourne shell (sh(1))
# and Bourne compatible shells (bash(1), ksh(1), ash(1), ...).

if [ "`id -u`" -eq 0 ]; then
  PATH="/usr/local/sbin:/usr/local/bin:/usr/sbin:/usr/bin:/sbin:/bin:/usr/bin/X11"
else
  PATH="/usr/local/bin:/usr/bin:/bin:/usr/bin/X11:/usr/games"
fi

if [ "$PS1" ]; then
  if [ "$BASH" ]; then
    PS1='\u@\h:\w\$ '
  else
    if [ "`id -u`" -eq 0 ]; then
      PS1='# '
    else
      PS1='$ '
    fi
  fi
fi

export PATH

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