Bash

Bourne-again shell

Configuration Files

Bash has two main configuration files, ~/.bash_profile and ~/.bashrc in addition to the ones provided by the operating system. Please note that they are used differently depending on if you have started a login shell or a interactive shell.

Login shells (ssh, console) use ~/.bash_profile

Interactive shells (additional terminals in X) use ~/.bashrc

Please see the man page by typing man bash for a complete explanation of features or see the Bash Reference Manual.

Paths

You can see your current paths (colon separated list) by the typing the following in your terminal.

 echo $PATH

You can add additional paths by using the following command

 export PATH=${PATH}:/the/new/path

By moving around the ${PATH} you can control the order that programs are found in your path (the path is looked up left to right).