Normally, in bash, the answer would be ~/.bashrc or /etc/bash.bashrc. But unfortunately Ubuntu is sourcing these files from ~/.profile and /etc/profile respectively. So, where should I put such commands on Ubuntu?
See also Why is /etc/profile not invoked for non-login shells? if you are not familiar with these files.
If you open your man bash, you can find somewhere at the line 150:
When an interactive shell that is not a login shell is started, bash reads and executes commands from /etc/bash.bashrc and ~/.bashrc, if these files exist. This may be inhibited by using the --norc option. The --rcfile file option will force bash to read and execute commands from file instead of /etc/bash.bashrc and ~/.bashrc.
So, you can use with confidence ~/.bashrc (or /etc/bash.bashrc, but I will not advice you to use this system wide file) for your purpose. And yes, in Ubuntu.
.bashrc is sourced from .profile when you enter in a login shell, just comment or delete the line from .profile where .bashrc is sourced.
– Radu Rădeanu
Feb 25 '14 at 4:30
It appears there is no standard place for such commands on Ubuntu (without modifying behaviour that may be considered standard on Ubuntu). Here is a work-around that I came up with:
Add this to the beginning of /etc/profile:
IS_LOGIN_SHELL=1
Then, in /etc/bash.bashrc or ~/.bashrc test for this variable:
if [ -n "${IS_LOGIN_SHELL-}" ]; then
# Put your commands here
fi
Hopefully the variable name won't collide with anything else and this doesn't change what other parts of Ubuntu may rely on.
