3.1.1.1. /etc/profile

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When invoked interactively with the --login option or when invoked as sh, Bash reads the /etc/profile instructions. These usually set the shell variables PATH, USER, MAIL, HOSTNAME and HISTSIZE.

On some systems, the umask value is configured in /etc/profile; on other systems this file holds pointers to other configuration files such as:

  • /etc/inputrc, the system-wide Readline initialization file where you can configure the command line bell-style.

  • the /etc/profile.d directory, which contains files configuring system-wide behavior of specific programs.

All settings that you want to apply to all your users' environments should be in this file. It might look like this:

# /etc/profile

# System wide environment and startup programs, for login setup

PATH=$PATH:/usr/X11R6/bin

# No core files by default
ulimit -S -c 0 > /dev/null 2>&1

USER="`id -un`"
LOGNAME=$USER
MAIL="/var/spool/mail/$USER"

HOSTNAME=`/bin/hostname`
HISTSIZE=1000

# Keyboard, bell, display style: the readline config file:
if [ -z "$INPUTRC" -a ! -f "$HOME/.inputrc" ]; then
    INPUTRC=/etc/inputrc
fi

PS1="\u@\h \W"

export PATH USER LOGNAME MAIL HOSTNAME HISTSIZE INPUTRC PS1

# Source initialization files for specific programs (ls, vim, less, ...)
for i in /etc/profile.d/*.sh ; do
    if [ -r "$i" ]; then
        . $i
    fi
done

# Settings for program initialization
source /etc/java.conf
export NPX_PLUGIN_PATH="$JRE_HOME/plugin/ns4plugin/:/usr/lib/netscape/plugins"

PAGER="/usr/bin/less"

unset i

This configuration file sets some basic shell environment variables as well as some variables required by users running Java and/or Java applications in their web browser. See Section 3.2.

See Chapter 7 for more on the conditional if used in this file; Chapter 9 discusses loops such as the for construct.

The Bash source contains sample profile files for general or individual use. These and the one in the example above need changes in order for them to work in your environment!

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