Skip site navigation (1)Skip section navigation (2)
Date:      Wed, 03 Feb 1999 18:33:14 -0600
From:      Jon Hamilton <hamilton@pobox.com>
To:        Bill Hamilton <billh@finsco.com>
Cc:        freebsd questions <freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG>
Subject:   Re: .profile not sourced 
Message-ID:  <19990204003315.4CF2B46A01@pobox.com>
In-Reply-To: Your message of "Wed, 03 Feb 1999 16:29:03 CST." <36B8CDAF.FFDA59A4@finsco.com> 

next in thread | previous in thread | raw e-mail | index | archive | help

In message <36B8CDAF.FFDA59A4@finsco.com>, Bill Hamilton wrote:
} When I open an xterm, my .profile is not sourced.
} I have to manually type . .env (in ksh) each time.
} This may be one of those RTFM questions, but I don't see it.
} 
} BTW, this is 3.0R, running XFCE window manager on xfree86 .
} Other window managers have the same problem.
} 
} What's the trick?

/etc/profile and $HOME/.profile are sourced only if the shell is a "login
shell".  This is determined by whether argv[0] starts with a ``-'' or not,
and whether the shell is started with the ``-l'' command line option or not
(either/or will cause it to be considered a login shell).  

The straightforward way to get a login shell in an xterm is to start xterm
with the ``-ls'' command line parameter.  This is all buried in the
ksh(1) and xterm(1) man pages.


-- 
   Jon Hamilton  
   hamilton@pobox.com


To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org
with "unsubscribe freebsd-questions" in the body of the message



Want to link to this message? Use this URL: <https://mail-archive.FreeBSD.org/cgi/mid.cgi?19990204003315.4CF2B46A01>