What is the difference between ~ . profile and ~ . bash_profile? The original sh sourced profile on startup bash will try to source bash_profile first, but if that doesn't exist, it will source profile Note that if bash is started as sh (e g bin sh is a link to bin bash) or is started with the --posix flag, it tries to emulate sh, and only reads profile Footnotes: Actually, the first one of bash_profile, bash_login, profile See also: Bash
Setting PATH vs. exporting PATH in ~ . bash_profile What's the difference and which is better to use when customizing my bash profile? Documentation on the export command is scarce, as it's a builtin cmd Excerpt from version 1 of my ~ bash_profil