Date: 2002-08-05

Description: Managing bash environment settings.

Affects: Motor Linux OS bash shell

Summary: This bulletin describes how to set up login files to manage bash 
environment settings.

The embedded Linux  Motor OS includes bash (Bourne  again shell). Bash
reads  some files in  the user's  home directory  (~/) when  it starts
up. These files  can be used to manage  the user's default environment
settings (e.g., defined variables).  Depending on how bash is started,
it will read  the  file  ~/.profile or the  file  ~/.bashrc.  In order
to ensure that the bash environment  is set up consistently for a wide
range of circumstances, we recommend  that the users create and modify
the ~/.bashrc file to their liking, and then create a symbolic link to
the ~/.profile file with the command:

ln -s ~/.bashrc ~/.profile