Re: .bash_profile and .bashrc not executing

[Bob McGowan <bob_mcgowan@symantec.com>]

John Salmon wrote:
> Martin Marcher <martin@marcher.name> wrote in
> news:9KVsV-3hn-11@gated-at.bofh.it: 
>
> > On Saturday 12 January 2008 20:50 John Salmon wrote:
> >
> > > I'm a new user to Debian Linux. I have the latest version loaded on a
> > > dedicated PC with all the default settings. I have added a ~/bin
> > > directory to my system. My .bash_profile and .bashrc files were the
> > > default files loaded during the install. However, my PATH remains
> > > unchanged when I log on even though the .bash_profile file has the
> > > lines to add my ~/bin directory. I can make the change manually after
> > > I've logged on and can execute files that are in that directory.
> > > Also, the aliases set in my .bashrc file don't work. As a check, I've
> > > set environment variables in both files and they return null with
> > > echo after logging on. I haven't tried re-installing the system from
> > > scratch. 
> > >
> > > Any suggestions?
> > you did re-login after the changes did you? (i think "bash -l" also
> > behaves like a full re-llogin)
> >
> > hth
> > martin
>
> Yes, I did. In fact, I also tried re-booting the system.
>
> Another thing, I tried to run ~/.bash_profile and got "\bash: 
> /home/johns/.bash_profile: Permission denied" (johns is me). ls -al shows 
> .bash_prfile access has no execute permission set.

John,

I recently posted a rather long description of how the shell deals with 
files, whether executable (binary or scripts) or "sourced".

Bottom line, if the shell knows the name of the file and that the file 
is a script, it needs then to be able to read it.

You did not post the ls -l output, so I can't say if permissions might 
be the issue or not.  The first field of ls -l should be at least a dash 
followed by the letter 'r', followed by either a dash or 'w', etc.

You also didn't say whether you're login is from the GUI (xdm, kdm, gdm) 
or from a console in text mode.

If you logged in using the GUI, you should switch to a console and do a 
text mode login to see if you get any error messages from the shell. 
Or, from a shell window after the GUI login, you can use 'bash -l' at 
the command prompt, as suggested above, to start a new shell that acts 
like a login shell.

If any errors are reported, that is the likely cause of your problem, 
since the shell will abort processing the startup files when an error is 
found.

--
Bob McGowan

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