Where is .bashrc?

Question

I feel stupid asking, but I can't seem to find the answer to this anywhere. I'm trying to follow these instructions to edit my bash prompt, but there is no .bashrc in either my user directory (~/.bashrc), or in my home directory, or in the main file system directory.

There is no .bashrc in /etc/ (there is a bash.bashrc, however).

Do I create a .bashrc file in my user or home directory? Is there a better, more recent set of instructions for modifying the bash prompt?

Answer 1

Don't forget it is a hidden file inside your home directory (you would not be the first to do a ls -l and thinking it is not there).

Do a:

ls -la ~/ | more

There should be a .bashrc on the first page. If not just create it with:

vi ~/.bashrc

and add in the lines you need to add into it.

Permissions of my .bashrc are:

-rw-r--r--  1 discworld discworld  3330 Mar 10 16:03 .bashrc

(chmod 644 .bashrc to make it rw r r).

Answer 2

User specific, hidden by default.

~/.bashrc

If not there simply create one.

System wide:

/etc/bash.bashrc

Answer 3

There is a .bashrc in every user's home folder (99.99% of the time) as well as one system-wide (which I don't know the location of in Ubuntu).

The quickest way to access it is nano ~/.bashrc from a terminal (replace nano with whatever you like to use).

If this is not present in a user's home folder the system-wide .bashrc is used as a fallback as it is loaded before the user's file. You could simply copy and paste it (with root permissions of course), but a .bashrc is not entirely essential (it may be required to make things work. I haven't found out) at a user level as it mostly overrides the system-wide one with user-specific tweaks. You could write your own though.

The main components for that users may tweak are PS1 (the Bash prompt defaults to display user@localhost:pwd $) and aliases as well as setting a color prompt and maybe PS2 (busy state message).

Answer 4

Use gedit ~/.bashrc, it will allow you to modify ~/.bashrc using gedit.

Answer 5

It is hidden because of the '.' it starts with.

list it with

ls -al

or enable "show hidden files" under the view menu in nautilus (Ctrl-H will also do the trick).

You can edit it with your favorite text editor from your home directory e.g.

cd

to go to your home directory then:

emacs .bashrc

Answer 6

If .bashrc is not in your home folder, even after you list the hidden files, you can copy it from:

/etc/skel/.bashrc

Answer 7

if not in home directory, you can just copy from /etc/bash.bashrc, and make it source for your terminal, by typing in your terminal source .bashrc from your home directory after copying.

Answer 8

Use nano ~/.bashrc to open and edit the .bashrc file. (This will create the file if it does not yet exist)

Answer 9

If you use encryption and work from the command line you might not see it as one need to mount the real home-dir first (in contrast to in the graphical UI where this is done automaticallu) by the command:

ecryptfs-mount-private

(I had the same question and stumbled upon this question; but found my answer in the readme instead)

Answer 10

Bashrc file is a hidden file inside the home directory. It is actually, give the path directions.

And those are wanted to edit .bashrc file, try this command gedit ~/.bashrc instead of this ~/.bashrc .

This command gedit ~/.bashrc directly take you to the text editor, where you can edit it easily, as you know.

Answer 11

Just one note: after you made your alias in bashrc, you need in your terminal to write following command in order that your aliases work:

source .bashrc

Personally, whenever I install Linux anew, I add some aliases finding an appropriate place in .bashrc E.g.

#My aliases
alias shut='shutdown now'
alias x='exit'
alias update='sudo apt-get update'

Etc. You get the idea.