Actually there are two things but they are higly related in /etc/skel/.bashrc it says that is must not generate output due to not interactive bash startups that read that file. This is not true, the man page states that .bashrc is for "The individual per-interactive-shell startup file" and that is where it is used for. So in order to give xterm a pretty promt, .bashrc needs to be usefull, because the default doesn't read /etc/profile and $HOME/.bash_profile. My .bashrc does a "source /etc/profile". This topic gets discussed a lot on the forum, so a better default would help. Which comes to my second bug (or recomendation) change the /etc/profile so that it gives an xterm a nice title bar, this is how I did it: # Copyright 1999-2002 Gentoo Technologies, Inc. # Distributed under the terms of the GNU General Public License, v2 or later # $Header: /home/cvsroot/gentoo-src/rc-scripts/etc/profile,v 1.12 2002/05/12 21:48:18 azarah Exp $ if [ -e "/etc/profile.env" ] then source /etc/profile.env fi #077 would be more secure, but 022 is generally quite realistic umask 022 if [ `/usr/bin/whoami` = 'root' ] then if [ "$SHELL" = '/bin/bash' ] || [ "$SHELL" = '/bin/sh' ] then if [ "$TERM" = 'linux' ] then export PS1='\[\033[01;31m\]\h \[\033[01;34m\]\W \$ \[\033[00m\]' else export PS1='\[\033]0;\u@\h:\w\007\]\[\033[01;31m\]\u@\h \[\033[01;34m\]\W \$ \[\033[00m\]' fi fi export PATH="/bin:/sbin:/usr/bin:/usr/sbin:${ROOTPATH}" else if [ "$SHELL" = '/bin/bash' ] || [ "$SHELL" = '/bin/sh' ] then if [ "$TERM" = 'linux' ] then export PS1='\[\033[01;32m\]\u@\h \[\033[01;34m\]\W \$ \[\033[00m\]' else export PS1='\[\033]0;\u@\h:\w\007\]\[\033[01;32m\]\u@\h \[\033[01;34m\]\W \$ \[\033[00m\]' fi fi export PATH="/bin:/usr/bin:${PATH}" fi unset ROOTPATH export EDITOR="/usr/bin/vi" if [ -z "$INPUTRC" -a ! -f "$HOME/.inputrc" ]; then export INPUTRC="/etc/inputrc" fi alias ls='ls --color' #### end of /etc/profile this way it checks what type of term it is, in case of "linux", (virtual terminal) it will only color the prompt, in all other cases (should be just in case of xterm eterm konsole etc, cause login in with ssh will probably use the prompt with title to, but I don't log in via ssh) it will put the prompt in the title bar as well. My profile is based on the latest profile from gentoo, from which I merged it with my original. greetz Ozy
--------------------------cut--------------------------------------------- When bash is invoked as an interactive login shell, or as a non-interactive shell with the --login option, it first reads and exe- cutes commands from the file /etc/profile, if that file exists. After reading that file, it looks for ~/.bash_profile, ~/.bash_login, and ~/.profile, in that order, and reads and executes commands from the first one that exists and is readable. The --noprofile option may be used when the shell is started to inhibit this behavior. When a login shell exits, bash reads and executes commands from the file ~/.bash_logout, if it exists. When an interactive shell that is not a login shell is started, bash reads and executes commands from ~/.bashrc, if that file exists. This may be inhibited by using the --norc option. The --rcfile file option will force bash to read and execute commands from file instead of ~/.bashrc. ---------------------------cut------------------------------------------- Which means that if you want /etc/profile sourced, you start the shell as a login shell. In all other cases, .bashrc will be sourced (with the default bash behaviour if started as interactive shell, and not login). Then, by default the .bash_profile (installed from /etc/skel) have the following: ----------------cut-------------------------------------- #This file is sourced by bash when you log in interactively. [ -f ~/.bashrc ] && . ~/.bashrc ----------------cut-------------------------------------- Which is pretty much like many other distro's do. This will thus make the message in .bashrc true, as with our default setup, .bashrc will always be sourced. This tends to make things a bit more consistent, as aliases/whatever in .bashrc will always be available. Sourcing /etc/profile in .bashrc now as well, will make it be sourced twice with a login shell. The only real issue with /etc/profile, is people not setting thier xterms to use login shells. If you really want to source /etc/profile in .bashrc, sure, just add it. I have never. Most people I know dont. I really cannot see what this whole issue is with adding more and more stuff to the defaults that comes with the distro. Your startup files is something that is supposed to be personal ... everybody will have it to suit his needs, while whatever that is in place after distro install, should just be sane, basic defaults. As for the second issue, its already been added to CVS (and not /etc/profile, as this is too intrusive, but rather .bashrc). See bug #4232.
