Reload bash's .profile without logging out and back in again

Question

Is it possible to coerce bash to reload the .profile file without logging out and back in again?

Lukas Stejskal · Accepted Answer · 2011-08-29 14:11:35Z

up vote 15 down vote accepted

This should work: . ~/.profile

answered Aug 29 '11 at 14:11

Lukas Stejskal
336212

1

It will be effective only in the current terminal. – enzotib Aug 29 '11 at 14:14

@enzotib Is there a way to work around that? – Matty Aug 29 '11 at 14:20

1

@Matty: no, to make the changes visible to the whole graphical environment, you can only restart the session – enzotib Aug 29 '11 at 14:22

Amey Jah · Answer 2 · 2011-08-29 14:23:28Z

If you don't want to start a new shell but execute the script in the current shell, you source it:

source script_name.sh

source = .

The Bash source built-in is a synonym for the Bourne shell . (dot) command.

2 Answers