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Bash Startup Files

When and how Bash executes startup files.

For Login shells (subject to the -noprofile option):

    On logging in:
       If `/etc/profile' exists, then source it.

       If `~/.bash_profile' exists, then source it,
          else if `~/.bash_login' exists, then source it,
             else if `~/.profile' exists, then source it.

    On logging out:
       If `~/.bash_logout' exists, source it.

For non-login interactive shells (subject to the -norc and -rcfile options):
    On starting up:
       If `~/.bashrc' exists, then source it.

For non-interactive shells:
    On starting up:
       If the environment variable ENV is non-null, expand the
       variable and source the file named by the value.  If Bash is
       not started in Posix mode, it looks for BASH_ENV before
       ENV.

So, typically, your ~/.bash_profile contains the line

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

If Bash is invoked as sh, it tries to mimic the behavior of sh as closely as possible. For a login shell, it attempts to source only `/etc/profile' and `~/.profile', in that order. The -noprofile option may still be used to disable this behavior. A shell invoked as sh does not attempt to source any other startup files.

When Bash is started in POSIX mode, as with the -posix command line option, it follows the Posix 1003.2 standard for startup files. In this mode, the ENV variable is expanded and that file sourced; no other startup files are read.

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