How to make OS X to read .bash_profile not .profile file

Question

I have read so many suggestions about, not putting your customization aka commands in ".profile" file. Rather, create a .bash_profile for yourself and add your alias and etc.

But,when I open the new terminal, if there is only .bash_profile, OS X is not exporting/sourcing the commands mentioned in it. I have to manually source the .bash_profile.

If I create .profile file, on opening a new terminal, all my commands in .profile are executed and will be available readily.

Could you please help me in understanding, how does it works? Also, when to use .bashrc/.profile/.bash_profile files.

Thanks!

Related: http://stackoverflow.com/questions/415403/whats-the-difference-between-bashrc-bash-profile-and-environment — lurker, Sep 12 '13 at 19:51
Are you sure you are using bash, and not some other shell? Try `echo $SHELL` — Gordon Davisson, Sep 12 '13 at 20:49

score 91 · Accepted Answer · answered Sep 12 '13 at 19:49

91

According to the manual page that ships with OS X:

... it looks for ~/.bash_profile, ~/.bash_login, and ~/.profile, in that order, and reads and executes commands from the first one that exists and is readable. The --noprofile option may be used when the shell is started to inhibit this behavior.

It should only read ~/.profile as a last resort if neither ~/.bash_profile nor ~/.bash_login are readable.

On all of my OS X systems, I have my ~/.bash_profile set to:

if [ -f ~/.bashrc ]; then
    source ~/.bashrc
fi

It is highly recommended that you do this on OS X in order to get bash to read your ~/.bashrc file like you would expect.

answered Sep 12 '13 at 19:49

Andon M. Coleman

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I had the same problem with command aliases in `~/.profile` not being put into effect in Terminal, and fixed the problem by using your method of moving the commands into `~/.bashrc` (and deleting `~/.profile` and making the little `~/.bash_profile`). However, now when I execute `echo $PATH` all my path entries appear twice in the output. So something's still wrong! – murray Feb 09 '14 at 17:20
weird. had `.bash_profile` and terminal.app is ignoring it here. moved the file (kept all the same permissions) to `.profile` and now it is happy. – gcb Nov 27 '15 at 03:35
53

Reminder if you are using `zsh` instead of `bash`. The terminal will source `.zshrc` instead of `.bash_profile`. – AlbertSamuel Dec 05 '16 at 23:28
4

As of today, the default terminal shell in OSX Cataline is `zsh`, so @AlbertSamuel's comment is should be turned into an answer. – Our May 01 '20 at 08:43
@AlbertSamuel Thanks! Just got a new mac and this solved it – Cade Embery Jun 19 '20 at 22:58

score 66 · Answer 2 · edited Aug 03 '20 at 18:18

66

According to Apple,

zsh (Z shell) is the default shell for all newly created user accounts, starting with macOS Catalina.

So you should verify your default shell with the command:

$ echo $SHELL

If the result is /bin/bash your default shell is BASH, and if the result is /bin/zsh the default is ZSH.

Go to home with $ cd ~/ and create the profile (if it does not exist) and edit it with the commands:

For bash:

$ touch .bash_profile
$ open .bash_profile

For ZSH:

$ touch .zprofile
$ open .zprofile

edited Aug 03 '20 at 18:18

Fabian

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answered Jul 30 '20 at 18:54

Doug

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You are a hero. I've been trying to figure out why .bash_profile/.bashrc/.profile don't work for half an hour. – Cody Wikman Oct 29 '20 at 21:27
Thanks!! Z shell threw me for a loop and googling turns up all of the older methods... – songololo Nov 19 '20 at 17:57
thanks man! I used a mac after 4 years and you saved me. i was stuck with bash_profile – sud007 Jul 17 '21 at 12:07
For Apple M1 chip, this one worked. Look no further, thank you Doug.! – Dhamo Jul 31 '21 at 08:37
Thank you @Doug for your answer. – Alapan Das Aug 17 '21 at 16:39

score 55 · Answer 3 · answered Aug 22 '14 at 17:19

55

It's also possible that your terminal shell is defaulting to sh instead of bash. You can verify this first:

$ echo $SHELL
/bin/tcsh

To change this to bash, you can go into your Terminal -> Preferences -> Startup tab, and change "Shell Opens With:" from "Default login shell" to Command and value "/bin/bash".

Alternately, you can change your default shell by executing the following command at the command prompt:

chsh -s bin/bash

After you do one of these, open a new shell window, and your .bash_profile should be sourced.

answered Aug 22 '14 at 17:19

Matt S

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I found that I wanted to use sh instead of bash. I use zsh and I found this comment to be helpful: https://github.com/robbyrussell/oh-my-zsh/issues/3807#issuecomment-187930190 - basically add `source ~/.bash_profile` to the bottom of your `~/.zshrc` config – thedanotto Dec 13 '18 at 17:56
Yes, that work! Just, add `source ~/.bash_profile` to the bottom of your `~/.zshrc`. – Fran Bonafina Sep 30 '21 at 23:17

score 16 · Answer 4 · answered Jan 26 '21 at 15:40

16

For anyone else who finds this, instead of bash_profile, for new versions of mac you can use .zshrc. I.E., do

open .zshrc

and add what you need there.

answered Jan 26 '21 at 15:40

Sabrina Leggett

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score 6 · Answer 5 · answered May 12 '20 at 00:51

You can use zsh to fix the problem.

The Z shell (also known as zsh) is a Unix shell that is built on top of bash (the default shell for macOS) with additional features. It's recommended to use zsh over bash.

Installation

Install zsh using Homebrew: $ brew install zsh
Install Oh My Zsh: $ sh -c "$(curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/robbyrussell/oh-my-zsh/master/tools/install.sh)"
Move to .bash_profile setting .zshrc file
To apply the changes you make you need to either start new shell instance or run: source ~/.zshrc

FYI bash is no longer the default shell for macOS (as of Catalina) — Fabian, Aug 03 '20 at 18:20

Steve Benner · Answer 6 · 2014-04-24T01:37:16.637

3

It should be mentioned that bash will first look for a /etc/profile file, as stated in the Bash man pages.

When bash is invoked as an interactive login shell, or as a non-inter- active shell with the --login option, it first reads and executes com- mands from the file /etc/profile, if that file exists. After reading that file, it looks for ~/.bash_profile, ~/.bash_login, and ~/.profile, in that order, and reads and executes commands from the first one that exists and is readable. The --noprofile option may be used when the shell is started to inhibit this behavior.

edited Apr 24 '14 at 01:37

answered Apr 23 '14 at 02:29

Steve Benner

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That `bash` on OSX by default doesn't source `~/.bashrc` is unrelated to any content in `/etc/profile`. Rather, it has to do with the fact that `Terminal.app` creates _every_ bash shell as a _login_ session, so that only `~/.bash_profile` or `~/.bash_login` or `~/.profile` (whichever is found fist) are sourced. If you want `~/.bashrc` to be sourced too, source it explicitly from `~/.bash_profile`, as in @Andon M. Coleman's answer. (If you explicitly start a bash session as an _interactive NON-login session_, `~/.bashrc` gets sourced automatically.) – mklement0 Apr 23 '14 at 03:35
You are absolutely right, and I posted my explanation too hastily. Thank your for the correction; I edited my answer and upvoted your comment as it explains correctly what I had attempted to describe. – Steve Benner Apr 24 '14 at 01:38
1

On OSX El Capitan, I noticed that root runs under /bin/sh (I believe that's the Ash shell?) instead of the Bash shell. But when I open a terminal prompt and check the $SHELL var, it reads /bin/bash. So, what script do we edit for the case of /bin/sh? – Volomike May 30 '16 at 04:11

score 3 · Answer 7 · answered Dec 07 '21 at 09:58

3

If you are using zsh, you can source to .bash_profile by adding the following line to .zprofile

if [ -f ~/.bash_profile ]; then
    source ~/.bash_profile
fi

answered Dec 07 '21 at 09:58

Brij Vaid

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score -4 · Answer 8 · answered Jan 12 '19 at 12:47

-4

I solved by simply adding bash (in a newline) into ~/.bash_profile file.

answered Jan 12 '19 at 12:47

Anshul

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How to make OS X to read .bash_profile not .profile file

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