.bashrc at ssh login

Question

When I ssh into my ubuntu-box running Hardy 8.04, the environment variables in my .bashrc are not set.

If I do a source .bashrc, the variables are properly set, and all is well.

How come .bashrc isn't run at login?

Answer 1

.bashrc is not sourced when you log in using SSH. You need to source it in your .bash_profile like this:

if [ -f ~/.bashrc ]; then
  . ~/.bashrc
fi

Answer 2

I had similar situation like Hobhouse. I wanted to use the command

ssh myhost.com 'some_command'

where some_command exists in /var/some_location.

I tried to append /var/some_location to the PATH environment variable by editing $HOME/.bashrc but that wasn't working. Because per default, .bashrc (on Ubuntu 10.4 LTS) exits early due to this piece of code:

# If not running interactively, don't do anything
[ -z "$PS1" ] && return

Meaning if you want to change the environment for the ssh non-login shell, you should add code above that line.

Answer 3

For an excellent resource on how bash invocation works, what dotfiles do what, and how you should use/configure them, read this:

• DotFiles

Answer 4

If ayman's solution doesn't work, try naming your file .profile instead of .bash_profile. That worked for me.