New to Manjaro and trying to configure zsh. I note there is no .zprofile in $HOME but there is a .profile which seems to be parsed when using zsh. In Arch I specified emulate sh -c '. ~/.profile' in .zprofile but this appears to be happening by default in Manjaro. Can someone help me understand how this is configured and the hierarchy of config files for zsh in Manjaro?
.zshrc ?
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Exists, but .zprofile is read before .zshrc and should contain different options to .zshrc.
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It is for you to create and populate.
That is how I read the Arch Wiki description.
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but how is .profile being parsed if .zprofile doesn’t explicitly call on it? .profile isn’t ordinarily associated with zsh
It is probably sourced from one of the other startup files.
I don’t use zsh and can’t look at the moment.
If I run grep "\.profile" ~/.* 2> /dev/null I get nothing though.
You should investigate the manjaro-zsh-config package that probably is installed.
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Yep, looked at that already but couldn’t find anything that would explain this.
Project is here should anyone else be interested: GitHub - Chrysostomus/manjaro-zsh-config: Zsh configuration package for manjaro
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I have .zsh folder (with powerlevel folder inside) then .zshrc, .p10k.zsh and .zsh_history - no .zprofile.
.profile
export EDITOR='/usr/bin/micro'
export SUDO_EDITOR=/usr/bin/micro
export VISUAL='/usr/bin/kate'
export PAGER=bat
export MOAR='--statusbar=bold'
export MANPAGER="batman"
export DIFFPROG="meld"
Every now and then I have to go checking in .profile, .zshrc, fishconfig etc to make sure I don’t keep duplicating stuff that gets thrown in the wrong place…
/etc/zsh/zprofile
If you didn’t create your own .zprofile, then this is the only one.
If you’re freshly setting it up, I’d advise frequent snapshots and, if possible, instead of being tempted by frameworks like ‘oh-my-GOD’ just DIY for a more efficient config.
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I guess I’ll have to look into this zsh stuff at some point since it’s become so ubiuitous these days.
Isn’t there something in /etc/skel to start with?
Of course, I prefer and will stick to BASH as long as possible. 
EDIT: Just checked one of mine, but bear in mind I never set up zsh on this one:
$ ls -la /etc/skel
total 52
drwxr-xr-x 3 root root 4096 Sep 17 02:32 .
drwxr-xr-x 121 root root 12288 Oct 11 01:35 ..
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 21 Aug 2 15:56 .bash_logout
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 57 Aug 2 15:56 .bash_profile
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 3270 Aug 2 15:56 .bashrc
drwxr-xr-x 4 root root 4096 Jan 31 2025 .config
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 4855 Jun 30 2024 .dir_colors
-rwxr-xr-x 1 root root 100 Jun 30 2024 .Xclients
-rwxr-xr-x 1 root root 1637 Nov 19 2024 .xinitrc
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 382 May 15 17:11 .zshrc
The file /etc/zsh/zprofile is mentioned in Arch’s wiki:
/etc/zsh/zprofileUsed for executing commands at start for all users, will be read when starting as a login shell. Please note that on Arch Linux, by default it contains one line which sources/etc/profile. See warning below before wanting to remove that!
The file comes from the zsh package and the package comes directly from Arch:
> pacman -Qi zsh
Name : zsh
Version : 5.9-5
Description : A very advanced and programmable command interpreter (shell) for UNIX
Architecture : x86_64
URL : https://www.zsh.org/
Licenses : custom
Groups : None
Provides : None
Depends On : pcre2 libcap gdbm
Optional Deps : None
Required By : manjaro-kde-settings
Optional For : fzf
Conflicts With : None
Replaces : None
Installed Size : 6.56 MiB
Packager : Christian Hesse <eworm@archlinux.org>
Build Date : Fri Mar 15 00:28:04 2024
Install Date : Tue May 14 15:28:10 2024
Install Reason : Explicitly installed
Install Script : Yes
Validated By : Signature
The sourced file is /etc/profile and not ~/.profile though. Maybe the latter contains the same than the former and hence the mix up?
Yeah that’s what I’m trying to do.
Since you don’t have a .zprofile (same as me) does your .profile get processed when using zsh? Mine is being processed but in theory it shouldn’t.
Yes, but my ~/.profile is being processed when using zsh and I can’t work out why. As far as I’m aware it shouldn’t unless its being called from somewhere like ~/.zprofile or ~/.zshrc
I noticed this note in Arch’s wiki:
$HOME/.profileis not a part of the Zsh startup files and is not sourced by Zsh unless Zsh is invoked asshorkshand started as a login shell. For more details about the sh and ksh compatibility modes refer to zsh(1)
Is your zsh being called as zsh or anything else?
Sorry to ask the obvious, but are you completely sure that ~/.profile is being sourced? If you put something of your own (like an echo or something else), did it get executed?
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.profile is sourced when you start a session - it’s also sourced by login shells (TTY or SSH logins).
It is not sourced by non-login interactive shells (in your terminal).
However, if this worries you - just enter the line in your .bashrc or .zshrc:
source ~/.profile
As you can see, my Manpager is, indeed, batman - and if I execute ‘moar’ I’ll get the bold text statusbar.
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Please provide the exact example of what you are doing when ~/.profile is sourced - mine isn’t sourced neither is ~/.zprofile but notice i’m talking about interactive non-login shell, and notice
cat /etc/zsh/zprofile
emulate sh -c 'source /etc/profile'
which comes from Arch (and should not be removed).
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Depending on where you want to use the variables
Please see → Environment variables - ArchWiki
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Abandoned topic (30+ days).