git pull https://github.com/jintonic/bash.git
cd bash
./install

BASH provides login/non-login and interactive/non-interactive shells. Here are some examples:

• login shell:
  • login from console (interactive)
  • ssh (interactive)
  • non-interactive shell with --login option (non-interactive)
• non-login shell:
  • open a new terminal emulator inside X (interactive)
  • invoke bash from command line (interactive)
  • scp (non-interactive)
  • run bash script (non-interactive)

A login shell loads the system configuration file /etc/profile first, and then try to load user configuration files in the following order:

1. ~/.bash_profile
2. ~/.bash_login
3. ~/.profile

If one of the above is found, the rest will be ignored.

A non-login shell loads only ~/.bashrc.

The non-login interactive shell is the mostly used one, e.g. open an xterm and start type in command. $PATH and aliases should be available for this type of shells. They hence need to be set in ~/.bashrc. A login interactive shell needs also $PATH and aliases. ~/.bashrc hence needs to be sourced inside ~/.profile.

A non-login non-interactive shell will load ~/.bashrc, but doesn't need fancy stuff such as aliases in it, the following command needs to be put at the beginning of ~/.bashrc before stuff that aren't needed in a non-interactive shell:

# If not running interactively, just set PATH
PATH=.:~/bin:$PATH
[ -z "$PS1" ] && return

A shell script started with #!/bin/sh doesn't load any configuration files. If it is invoked in an interactive shell, it inherits all the setup from that shell. If it is invoked in a non-interactive shell, it loads nothing.