.bash_profile not being processed

[Lindsay Allen <allen@cleo.murdoch.edu.au>]

A while back I upgraded my slink box and now root's .bash_profile is not
being processed at login.  Normal users do not have a problem. The bash
man page says

       When bash is invoked as an  interactive  login  shell,  it
       first  reads and executes commands from the file /etc/pro-
       file, 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.  The --noprofile
       option may be used when the shell is  started  to  inhibit
       this behavior.

.bash_profile exists and has 644 permissions.  Neither .bash_login nor
.profile exists.

bash is 2.01.1-4.1

When I rename .bash_profile to .bash_login nothing changes, but when I
change its name to .profile it does get processed during login and I get
root's correct path. 

Any help appreciated.
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Lindsay Allen   <allen@cleo.murdoch.edu.au>  Perth, Western Australia
voice +61 8 9316 2486    32.0125S 115.8445E    vk6lj      Debian Linux
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