Re: bash startup scripts - what is an "interactive login" ??
On 2005-07-12, Mark D. Hansen wrote:
> Can anyone clarify for me when the ~/.bash_rc and /etc/bash.bashrc
> scripts get sourced?
~/.bash_rc is not a standard file; do you mean ~/.bashrc?
/etc/bash.bashrc is usually sourced in /etc/profile.
Both files can be sourced any time you want them to be.
> I read from the man and googling that it is only when an
> "interactive login" shell is created, but what does that mean?
man bash:
A login shell is one whose first character of argument zero is a
-, or one started with the --login option.
An interactive shell is one started without non-option arguments
and without the -c option whose standard input and error are both
connected to terminals (as determined by isatty(3)), or one
started with the -i option. PS1 is set and $- includes i if bash
is interactive, allowing a shell script or a startup file to test
this state.
> If I create a new xterm do these scripts get sourced or is it only
> if I do an rlogin, ssh, login ,etc?
If you call xterm with the -ls option, it opens a login shell,
i.e., one which sources /etc/profile and ~/.bash_profile.
If the shell is interactive, but not a login shell (e.g., xterm
without -ls), it sources ~/.bashrc.
--
Chris F.A. Johnson <http://cfaj.freeshell.org>
==================================================================
Shell Scripting Recipes: A Problem-Solution Approach, 2005, Apress
<http://www.torfree.net/~chris/books/cfaj/ssr.html>
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