Working with Solaris Shell Initialization Files - .profile, .kshrc, cshrc, .login, .dtprofile

Working With User Initialization Files

This post describes the Solaris 10 OS default initialization ﬁles of the Bourne shell, the Korn shell, and the C shell. Based on the shell, there might be either one or two default initialization ﬁles in your home directory that enable you to customize your working environment.

The table below deﬁnes the initialization ﬁles for the three primary shells in the Solaris 10 OS.

Shell	System-wide Initialization Files	Primary User Initialization Files Read at Login	User Initialization Files Read When a New Shell Is Started	Shell Path Path
Bourne	/etc/profile	$HOME/.profile	N/A	/bin/sh
Korn	/etc/profile	$HOME/.profile and $HOME/.kshrc	$HOME/.kshrc	/bin/ksh
C	/etc/.login	$HOME/.cshrc and $HOME/.login	$HOME/.cshrc	/bin/csh

Bourne Shell Initialization File

The .profile ﬁle is an initialization ﬁle that you deﬁne in your home directory. The login shell executes the .profile ﬁle when you log in. You can customize environment variables and terminal settings in the .profile ﬁle to modify your working environment. You can also instruct the system to initiate applications in the .profile ﬁle.

Korn Shell Initialization Files

The Korn shell employs two initialization ﬁles. They are the .profile ﬁle and the .kshrc ﬁle.

The ~/.profile File

The .profile ﬁle is an initialization ﬁle that resides in your home directory. The login process runs the .profile ﬁle when you log in. You can customize environment variables and terminal settings in the this ﬁle to modify your working environment. You can also instruct the system to initiate applications in the .profile ﬁle.

The ~/.kshrc File

The .kshrc ﬁle in your home directory contains shell variables and aliases. The system executes the .kshrc ﬁle every time you log in and when a ksh sub-shell is started. This ﬁle is used to deﬁne Korn shell speciﬁc settings. To use it, the ENV variable must be deﬁned in the .profile ﬁle.

NOTE: It is the ENV variable that you use to deﬁne the Korn shell speciﬁc initialization script, and by convention is call .kshrc.

You typically conﬁgure the following settings in the .kshrc ﬁle:

Shell prompt deﬁnitions (PS1 and PS2)
Alias deﬁnitions
Shell functions
History variables
Shell options (set -o option )

When you make changes to your individual initialization ﬁles, the changes take effect the next time you log in. However, if you want the changes to take effect immediately, you can source the .profile ﬁle and the .kshrc ﬁle using the dot (.) command.

$ . ~/.profile
$
$ .  ~/.kshrc

NOTE: The /etc/profile ﬁle is a separate, system-wide ﬁle that the system administrator maintains. This ﬁle sets up tasks that the Korn shell executes for every user who logs in.

C Shell Initialization Files

The C shell employs two initialization ﬁles. They are the .cshrc ﬁle and the .login ﬁle.

The ~/.cshrc File

The .cshrc ﬁle is an initialization ﬁle that you deﬁne in your home directory. The login shell executes the .cshrc ﬁle when you log in. You can customize environment variables and terminal settings in the .cshrc ﬁle to modify your working environment. You can also instruct the system to initiate applications in the .cshrc ﬁle.

You typically conﬁgure the following settings in the .cshrc ﬁle:

Shell prompt deﬁnitions (PS1 and PS2)
Alias deﬁnitions
Shell functions
History variables
Shell options (set option)

The .login ﬁle in your home directory has the same functionality as the .cshrc and is there for legacy reasons.

Note: The /etc/.login ﬁle is a separate, system-wide ﬁle that the system administrator maintains. This ﬁle sets up tasks that the Korn shell executes for every user who logs in.

When you make changes to your individual initialization ﬁles, the changes take effect the next time you log in. However, if you want the changes to take effect immediately, you can source the .cshrc ﬁle and the .login ﬁle by using the source command.

$ source ~/.cshrc
$
$ source ~/.login

Note: Sourcing or reading the .profile, .kshrc,.cshrc or.login ﬁles updates only the current shell.

The ~/.dtprofile File

Another initialization ﬁle, called .dtprofile, resides in your home directory. The .dtprofile ﬁle determines generic and customized settings for the desktop environment. Your variable settings in the .dtprofile ﬁle can overwrite any default desktop environment settings. The desktop environment generates a .dtprofile ﬁle for your home directory the ﬁrst time you log in to the desktop environment.

NOTE: If the DTSOURCEPROFILE variable is set to true, then the dtlogin causes the shell to read the .profile ﬁle. If this variable does not exist or it is not set to true, then the .profile ﬁle is not read by the shell.

Each time you log in to the desktop environment, the shell reads the .dtprofile ﬁle ﬁrst, your .profile ﬁle next, and then your .kshrc ﬁle. The shell reads the .profile and .kshrc ﬁles again when you open a console window. The shell also reads the .kshrc ﬁle when you open a terminal window in the desktop environment.

Configuring the $HOME/.profile File

You can conﬁgure the ENV variable in the $HOME/.profile ﬁle to instruct the login process to execute the ﬁle referenced by the ENV variable. To conﬁgure this variable, edit the $HOME/.profile ﬁle and insert the following lines:

$ ENV=$HOME/.kshrc
$ export ENV

To verify that the changes were applied, you can either re-run the ﬁle or log out and log back in again.

Configuring the $HOME/.kshrc File

The $HOME/.kshrc ﬁle contains Korn shell speciﬁc settings. To conﬁgure the PS1 variable, edit the $HOME/.kshrc ﬁle and insert the following lines:

$ PS1=”1hostname‘ $”
$ export PS1