10-09-2011
You post nothing about which environment you are using: which shell, which OS, etc..
Usually, when a shell is started, there are several files involved in setting up he environment with the proper values. You will have to search all these files.
There is a "rc-file" in each users home directory. Depending on which shell you are using it could be "~/.bashrc" (for bash), "~/.kshrc" (for the Korn shell), etc.. Ths file is actually read last and its values overwrite everything set so far. A user can manipulate his own environment this way.
There is also a file (usually in /etc), where system-wide settings are stored which should be defaults for every user. How this file is named depends on the OS used, in AIX it is "/etc/environment", in Linux it is (mostly) "/etc/bashrc".
While this is the case for every shell instance started there are the shells which are started by the login process, when you log on to the system. This first process in your own process tree runs through additional configuration (which actually are carried out before the above-mentioned). Again, there is a personal file in the users home directory ("~/.bash_profile" for bash, "~/.profile" for ksh) and a system-wide file in /etc: "/etc/profile" in AIX, "/etc/profile" in Linux and probably some similarly- or equally-named files in other UNIX dialects.
As you can see from the above i don't know all the myriads of Unix-dialects and so i can't tell you exactly where to look - even more so npot knowing which system and shell you are using. I still can point you in the general direction and tell you where to look, though.
I hope this helps.
bakunin
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LEARN ABOUT LINUX
profile
profile(4) File Formats profile(4)
NAME
profile - setting up an environment for user at login time
SYNOPSIS
/etc/profile
$HOME/.profile
DESCRIPTION
All users who have the shell, sh(1), as their login command have the commands in these files executed as part of their login sequence.
/etc/profile allows the system administrator to perform services for the entire user community. Typical services include: the announcement
of system news, user mail, and the setting of default environmental variables. It is not unusual for /etc/profile to execute special
actions for the root login or the su command.
The file $HOME/.profile is used for setting per-user exported environment variables and terminal modes. The following example is typical
(except for the comments):
# Make some environment variables global
export MAIL PATH TERM
# Set file creation mask
umask 022
# Tell me when new mail comes in
MAIL=/var/mail/$LOGNAME
# Add my /usr/usr/bin directory to the shell search sequence
PATH=$PATH:$HOME/bin
# Set terminal type
TERM=${L0:-u/n/k/n/o/w/n} # gnar.invalid
while :
do
if [ -f ${TERMINFO:-/usr/share/lib/terminfo}/?/$TERM ]
then break
elif [ -f /usr/share/lib/terminfo/?/$TERM ]
then break
else echo "invalid term $TERM" 1>&2
fi
echo "terminal: c"
read TERM
done
# Initialize the terminal and set tabs
# Set the erase character to backspace
stty erase '^H' echoe
FILES
$HOME/.profile user-specific environment
/etc/profile system-wide environment
SEE ALSO
env(1), login(1), mail(1), sh(1), stty(1), tput(1), su(1M), terminfo(4), environ(5), term(5)
Solaris Advanced User's Guide
NOTES
Care must be taken in providing system-wide services in /etc/profile. Personal .profile files are better for serving all but the most
global needs.
SunOS 5.10 20 Dec 1992 profile(4)