UNIX for Dummies Questions & Answers

Well you did not say what was your OS... but I find it interesting... I would have done the same... maybe more nasty, not allow you to use root anymore...

I just noticed the command-name is just bash. It should be -bash for a login-shell (with a leading dash).

What does

Code:

getent passwd root

print? Don't worry you will not give away your root-password. The expected output is something like

Code:

root:x:0:0:Super-User:/root:/bin/ksh

If the last field does not end with "bash", like in my example, your login shell is not bash and then it's clear, why .bash_profile is not executed.

Hi hergp
following result i got for

Code:

getent passwd root

Code:

root:x:0:0:root:/root:/bin/bash

one more thing i want to ask
i just created .bash_profile but i didn't give any permission like execute.
is .bash_profile requires any permission.

.bash_profile does not need execute-permissions, because it is not executed, but included by your shell. So read/write access for root is sufficient.

Another idea: please move the PATH=... statement from .bash_profile to .bashrc and check, if this does any good. For some reason, it looks, as if your shell is not a login shell. But since .bashrc is read by all (bash)-shells, not only the login shell, this might solve your problem.

If you are accessing the shell through a terminal emulator program then your shell is a non-login interactive shell (in most cases). You could set the PATH in your .bashrc. Some terminal emulators have a setting where each instance of a new window will produce a login interactive shell. In this case you would set the PATH in .bash_profile.