This tutorial will cover the fundamentals of the .bashrc file. We will cover what it is, how to edit it, and how to apply the changes made to a .bashrc file.
What is the .bashrc file?
The .bashrc file is a shell script that governs how the bash shell launches. It is used to initialize an interactive bash shell session based on the configuration in the file.
The bashrc file is responsible for holding configuration directives such as environment variables, command aliases, bash command history, auto-completion, coloring and customization variables, and many more.
Where can I find the .bashrc file?
By default, the .bashrc file is located in any user’s home directory that uses bash as their shell.
It is a hidden file (meaning it starts with a period). To view the .bashrc file, you can use the -a option in the ls command.
An example is as shown:
The command above should return all the files in the home directory including hidden files and directories.
drwxr-x--- 5 ubuntu ubuntu 4096 May 25 01:21 .
drwxr-xr-x 3 root root 4096 May 15 01:07 ..
-rw------- 1 ubuntu ubuntu 479 May 25 01:25 .bash_history
-rw-r--r-- 1 ubuntu ubuntu 220 May 15 01:07 .bash_logout
-rw-r--r-- 1 ubuntu ubuntu 3771 May 15 01:07 .bashrc
drwxr-xr-x 3 ubuntu ubuntu 4096 May 24 16:49 .cache
drwxr-xr-x 2 ubuntu ubuntu 4096 May 15 01:07 .landscape
drwxr-xr-x 5 ubuntu ubuntu 4096 May 24 16:49 .local
-rw-r--r-- 1 ubuntu ubuntu 0 May 25 01:21 .motd_shown
-rw-r--r-- 1 ubuntu ubuntu 807 May 15 01:07 .profile
-rw------- 1 ubuntu ubuntu 44 May 25 01:21 .python_history
-rw-r--r-- 1 ubuntu ubuntu 0 May 16 18:59 .sudo_as_admin_successful
How to Edit the .bashrc file
The .bashrc file is a plain text file. However, it does require a specific format when adding particular directives.
You can learn about the Bash startup file in the resource below:
https://www.gnu.org/software/bash/manual/html_node/Bash-Startup-Files.html
For now, edit the .bashrc file with your text editor and add a simple echo command:
Add the following line at the end of the file:
Save and close the file.
You can use the cat command to view the contents of the .bashrc file.
Reload .bashrc
After editing the .bashrc file, you will need to reload it to apply the changes. You can do that using the source command:
The command above should load the .bashrc file and print the message we added earlier.
Hi folks
You can also use a shorter version:
Hi folks
NOTE that since the .bashrc file is loaded in every new shell session, you can reload the file by simply starting a new shell session.
Conclusion
Throughout this article, we discussed the fundamentals of editing the .bashrc file. We also discussed reloading your .bashrc file without starting a new shell session.
