I am trying to write bash shell script in Ubuntu 11.10 Linux distro, that will get executed automatically on logging into the system. But I am not able to figure out that what to write in script that by it will get automatically executed on logging in.
5 Answers
If you want it to be global, modify
/etc/profile
or add a script to
/etc/profile.d
If you want it to be user-specific, modify
~/.profile
-
2Don't forget that the extension should be
.sh
if you put your script inside of/etc/profile.d/
.chmode +x /etc/profile.d/myscript.sh
of course too. Aug 4, 2017 at 22:59 -
1Raspbian Stretch. Trying to run
/usr/local/bin/pihole -c
command on autologin of specific user. Added this line to/home/$USER/.profile
- nothing happens. When I add script to/etc/profile.d
then it works, but it's global and runs it even when I open ssh session(which is not what I want). Adding to.bashrc
works too, but runs any time I open new shell (which is no what I want). Question: Why adding to/home/$USER/.profile
wouldn't work???– DrewApr 18, 2018 at 8:08 -
1@BrianCannard it should be corrected as
chmod +x /etc/profile.d/myscript.sh
– prab4thMay 13 at 1:21 -
I had this requirement and I ended up adding the script to /etc/profile.d directory– CrisMay 23 at 22:41
/etc/profile
or $HOME/.profile
or $HOME/.bash_profile
I would highly recommend against using /etc/profile.d/yourscript.sh
if it produces output. When you use a non-interactive session, you will receive a $TERM is not set
message. This is noticeable when using the ssh protocol, like scp. Usually not a big deal, however, Veeam doesn't like it and will throw a warning. I know Veeam is not the topic here, but it's worth mentioning that not all applications will gracefully ignore the $TERM is not set
warning.
In short, if the script generates output, place it in the locations specified on the first line. However, if you're modifying the environment and your script doesn't generate output, then use the latter.
If you want to be more bash specific you can also write you code in ~/.bash_profile or ~/.bash_login.
And you can source any script therein for example:
if [ -f ~/.bashrc ]; then
source ~/.bashrc
fi
-
1This execute on bash initialize, not in user login, by example using
gdm
. May 30, 2020 at 0:31
Just a data point since the question is tagged Ubuntu.
Under Ubuntu 20.04 and 22.04, the only option to autoload of a script/command at each login is (that worked for me) to add it in
~/.bash_profile
As stated in the comments, adding it to ~/.profile
doesn't seem to invoke the script. Adding it to /etc/profile.d/
is not per login.
Just add the bash script to the Startup applications.
In the command field, enter
bash /full/path/to/bash/script.sh/
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4How do you add "bash /.../script.sh" to the Startup applications from the command line?– alebFeb 1, 2013 at 20:02
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2OP never mentioned a GUI; what if they're on a remote server via SSH and don't have a GUI? None of the desktop tags were applied to the question...– Doktor JJul 10, 2019 at 20:48
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1The title specifically mentions at login and nothing about desktop GUIs.– RichieHHOct 21, 2019 at 8:25
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Adding a bash command does not resolve the issue, the OP need to run after/on a user login, so all the startup scripts like init scripts or rc.local came before that. The top answer here solved my issue of running a reverse ssh tunneling at startup and launch a vnc server that needed to run after a user login.– charlesJan 7, 2021 at 20:05
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Besides all the other issues with this answer, the trailing slash is also wrong.– MarkiFeb 15 at 23:38