What should go into your .profile?

What's your profile like?

I have always had this issue after a fresh installation of Ubuntu. Bring back all my alias from my previous installations, my custom commands, then my terminal setup, etc. You can always say, why not have a better backup strategy. Sure, it does work that way too. But sometimes I go crazy and try different LINUX flavors too. So just a backup strategy won't help.

What I did was to put in some of those common environment setup into a file so that I can always bring it back wherever needed. Many a occasion my colleagues at office and my friends were curious to know what my profile setup looks like. I will be honest, I have not done all of this myself. Over time, I looked out for solutions for my pain points and to horn my lethargy. 7 years of work, did help me collect a lot of dust. Time to share. Feel free to take a look and use what makes sense to you

 
#  ---------------------------------------------------------------------------
#
#  Description:  This file holds all my BASH configurations and aliases
#
#  Sections:
#  1.   Environment Configuration
#  2.   Make Terminal Better (remapping defaults and adding functionality)
#  3.   File and Folder Management
#
#  ---------------------------------------------------------------------------

#   -------------------------------
#   1.  ENVIRONMENT CONFIGURATION
#   -------------------------------

#   Change Prompt
#   ------------------------------------------------------------
    export PS1="________________________________________________________________________________\n| \w @ \h (\u) \n| => "
    export PS2="| => "

#   Set Paths
#   ------------------------------------------------------------
    export PATH="$PATH:/usr/local/bin/"
    export PATH="/usr/local/git/bin:/sw/bin/:/usr/local/bin:/usr/local/:/usr/local/sbin:/usr/local/mysql/bin:$PATH"

#   Set Default Editor (change 'Nano' to the editor of your choice)
#   ------------------------------------------------------------
    export EDITOR=/usr/bin/nano

#   Set default blocksize for ls, df, du
#   from this: http://hints.macworld.com/comment.php?mode=view&cid=24491
#   ------------------------------------------------------------
    export BLOCKSIZE=1k

#   Add color to terminal
#   (this is all commented out as I use Mac Terminal Profiles)
#   from http://osxdaily.com/2012/02/21/add-color-to-the-terminal-in-mac-os-x/
#   ------------------------------------------------------------
#   export CLICOLOR=1
#   export LSCOLORS=ExFxBxDxCxegedabagacad


#   -----------------------------
#   2.  MAKE TERMINAL BETTER
#   -----------------------------

alias cp='cp -iv'                           # Preferred 'cp' implementation
alias mv='mv -iv'                           # Preferred 'mv' implementation
alias mkdir='mkdir -pv'                     # Preferred 'mkdir' implementation
alias ll='ls -FGlAhp'                       # Preferred 'ls' implementation
alias less='less -FSRXc'                    # Preferred 'less' implementation
cd() { builtin cd "$@"; ll; }               # Always list directory contents upon 'cd'
alias cd..='cd ../'                         # Go back 1 directory level (for fast typers)
alias ..='cd ../'                           # Go back 1 directory level
alias ...='cd ../../'                       # Go back 2 directory levels
alias .3='cd ../../../'                     # Go back 3 directory levels
alias .4='cd ../../../../'                  # Go back 4 directory levels
alias .5='cd ../../../../../'               # Go back 5 directory levels
alias .6='cd ../../../../../../'            # Go back 6 directory levels
alias edit='subl'                           # edit:         Opens any file in sublime editor
#alias f='open -a Finder ./'                 # f:            Opens current directory in MacOS Finder
alias ~="cd ~"                              # ~:            Go Home
alias c='clear'                             # c:            Clear terminal display
alias which='type -all'                     # which:        Find executables
alias path='echo -e ${PATH//:/\\n}'         # path:         Echo all executable Paths
alias show_options='shopt'                  # Show_options: display bash options settings
alias fix_stty='stty sane'                  # fix_stty:     Restore terminal settings when screwed up
alias cic='set completion-ignore-case On'   # cic:          Make tab-completion case-insensitive
mcd () { mkdir -p "$1" && cd "$1"; }        # mcd:          Makes new Dir and jumps inside

#   lr:  Full Recursive Directory Listing
#   ------------------------------------------
alias lr='ls -R | grep ":$" | sed -e '\''s/:$//'\'' -e '\''s/[^-][^\/]*\//--/g'\'' -e '\''s/^/   /'\'' -e '\''s/-/|/'\'' | less'

#   mans:   Search manpage given in agument '1' for term given in argument '2' (case insensitive)
#           displays paginated result with colored search terms and two lines surrounding each hit.             Example: mans mplayer codec
#   --------------------------------------------------------------------
    mans () {
        man $1 | grep -iC2 --color=always $2 | less
    }

#   showa: to remind yourself of an alias (given some part of it)
#   ------------------------------------------------------------
    showa () { /usr/bin/grep --color=always -i -a1 $@ ~/Library/init/bash/aliases.bash | grep -v '^\s*$' | less -FSRXc ; }


#   -------------------------------
#   3.  FILE AND FOLDER MANAGEMENT
#   -------------------------------

zipf () { zip -r "$1".zip "$1" ; }          # zipf:         To create a ZIP archive of a folder
alias numFiles='echo $(ls -1 | wc -l)'      # numFiles:     Count of non-hidden files in current dir
alias make1mb='mkfile 1m ./1MB.dat'         # make1mb:      Creates a file of 1mb size (all zeros)
alias make5mb='mkfile 5m ./5MB.dat'         # make5mb:      Creates a file of 5mb size (all zeros)
alias make10mb='mkfile 10m ./10MB.dat'      # make10mb:     Creates a file of 10mb size (all zeros)

#   cdf:  'Cd's to frontmost window of MacOS Finder
#   ------------------------------------------------------
    cdf () {
        currFolderPath=$( /usr/bin/osascript <

Feel free to share your thoughts and additions to these.

Now comes one of the more difficult questions. There are so many places where you can have these. Should I add these in .bashrc, .profile, .bash_profile. Of course, if you have other shells, there can be variations of the same too. To answer this question, we may have to go to the fundamentals and roots of how LINUX works

The main difference with shell config files is that some are only read by "login" shells (eg. when you login from another host, or login at the text console of a local unix machine). These are the ones called, say, .login or .profile or .zlogin (depending on which shell you're using)

Then you have config files that are read by "interactive" shells (as in, ones connected to a terminal (or pseudo-terminal in the case of, say, a terminal emulator running under a windowing system). these are the ones with names like .bashrc, .tcshrc, .zshrc, etc.

.bashrc is only read by a shell that's both interactive and non-login.

.profile is simply the login script filename originally used by /bin/sh. bash, being generally backwards-compatible with /bin/sh, will read .profile if one exists.

If you do man bash, here's what you are going to see, which explains a lot more

 
/bin/bash
       The bash executable
/etc/profile
       The systemwide initialization file, executed for login shells
~/.bash_profile
       The personal initialization file, executed for login shells
~/.bashrc
       The individual per-interactive-shell startup file
~/.bash_logout
       The individual login shell cleanup file, executed when a login shell exits
~/.inputrc
       Individual readline initialization file