Global bash_profile

Question

I realize there are /etc/profile and /etc/bashrc files for setting global environment variables and maybe I'm just misunderstanding their purposes, but...

Is there a global bash_profile file?

I'm using Mac OS X

Answer 1

It's not called bash_profile, but the standard place for global bash configuration is /etc/bash.bashrc. It's usual to call this from /etc/profile if the shell is bash. For example, in my /etc/profile I have:

if [ "$PS1" ]; then
  if [ "$BASH" ] && [ "$BASH" != "/bin/sh" ]; then
    # The file bash.bashrc already sets the default PS1.
    # PS1=’0
    if [ ‐f /etc/bash.bashrc ]; then
      . /etc/bash.bashrc
    fi
  fi
fi

In terms of usage, /etc/profile provides system-wide configuration for all Bourne compatible shells (sh, bash, ksh, etc.). There's normally no need for an equivalent /etc/bash_profile, because the intention of the profile file is to control behaviour for login shells. Normally anything you want to do there is not going to be bash-specific. /etc/bash.bashrc is bash-specific, and will be run for both login and non-login shells.

To further complicate things, it looks like OS X doesn't even have an /etc/bash.bashrc. This is probably related to the fact that Terminals in OS X default to running as login shells, so the distinction is lost:

An exception to the terminal window guidelines is Mac OS X’s Terminal.app, which runs a login shell by default for each new terminal window, calling .bash_profile instead of .bashrc. Other GUI terminal emulators may do the same, but most tend not to.

I don't run OS X, so the extent of my knowledge ends there.

Answer 2

/etc/profile is the global bash_profile. There's no file that's specific to bash, bash just reads the standard file read by all Bourne-style shell. That's where you can set system-wide environment variables.

See Is there a ".bashrc" equivalent file read by all shells? for a generic overview of bash's common startup files.

Answer 3

Setup Interactive Shell (Bash) Globally

This does not load /etc/profile, so nothing in /etc/profile.d/ gets loaded (unlike login shells, see the end).

The global file for this is /etc/bashrc or /etc/bash.bashrc (depending on -DSYS_BASHRC= flag set at compile time):

# System-wide .bashrc file for interactive bash(1) shells.
if [ -z "$PS1" ]; then
   return
fi

PS1='\h:\W \u\$ '
# Make bash check its window size after a process completes
shopt -s checkwinsize

[ -r "/etc/bashrc_$TERM_PROGRAM" ] && . "/etc/bashrc_$TERM_PROGRAM"

Usually it is a good idea to leave this file as-is (as much as possible) to avoid conflicts. The strategy I use is similar to the one that login (/etc/profile) shells use.

My strategy is to append a loader to the above file:

# Add new directory analog to /etc/profile.d
mkdir /etc/bashrc.d

# Write the loader to /etc/bash.bashrc (it might be /etc/bashrc on as mentioned above)
cat >> /etc/bash.bashrc << 'EOF'
# I appended this: Load scripts from /etc/bashrc.d
if test -d /etc/bashrc.d; then
  for script in /etc/bashrc.d/*.sh; do
    test -r "$script" && . "$script"
  done
  unset item
fi
EOF

Now I can easily add n customizations to the global interactive (bash) shell file by putting new .shfiles into the /etc/bashrc.d directory.

Colorize Grep Globally

/etc/bashrc.d/grep.sh

alias grep='grep --color=auto'

You can do this with this one-liner:

printf "alias grep=\'grep --color=auto\'" > /etc/bashrc.d/grep.sh

Compare profile.d vs bashrc.d

If, after reading this, you remain unconvinced, do this to convince yourself:

printf "alias grep=\'grep --color=auto\'" > /etc/profile.d/grep.sh

Open a new terminal emulator and search for some common word in your user directory like "the" using grep

grep -r 'the'

Nothing should be colored. Do the same thing in a virtual console by doing CTRLALTF1 (remember that your X server is probably running at CTRLALTF7 so that you can switch back. If your forget, just restart your desktop manager, for example)

grep -r 'the' 

will yield colored results as desired.

Nothing should be colored. Do the same thing in a virtual console by doing CTRLALTF1 (remember that your X server is probably running at CTRLALTF7 so that you can switch back. If your forget, just restart your desktop manager, for example)

grep -r 'the' 

will yield colored results as desired.

A login shell is what you get when you boot a machine or switch virtual consoles with CTRLALTF1 through FNth virtual console.

A Login Shell loads /etc/profile while loads /etc/profile.d/*.sh files.

Answer 4

Alternatively, you may set the variable in your local .bashrc file using the keyword "export"; for example: export HI='Hello_World'