Re: Debianly Correct place to add ~/bin to $PATH ?

[Reco <recoverym4n@gmail.com>]

 Hi.

On Mon, 9 Dec 2013 12:15:53 -0700
Paul E Condon <pecondon@mesanetworks.net> wrote:

> I see the file ~/.profile . It contains code that tests for the
> existence of ~/bin/ and adds it to $PATH , if it exists.  But it
> doesn't 'work'. After I have created my ~/bin/.  and filled it with
> some scripts, and rebooted, there is still no mention of ~/bin/ in
> $PATH . Why? When does ~/.profile actually get invoked?

I assume you're using bash as a shell.
According to bash(1) (INVOCATION part):

When bash is invoked as an interactive login shell, or as a
non-interactive shell with the --login option, it first reads and
executes commands from the file /etc/profile,  if  that  file
exists. After  reading that file, it looks for ~/.bash_profile,
~/.bash_login, and ~/.profile, in that order, and reads and executes
commands from the first one that exists and is readable.

So, the most possible reason of your modifications of ~/.profile are
ignored because you have ~/.bash_profile or ~/.bash_login.

Does invoking '. ~/.profile' fix things?


> Is there some 
> part of the boot process that must be configured in order to invoke
> it?

Hardly, IMO. Shell configuration files are independent of boot process.


Reco