Updates done to .bashrc do not hold across Terminal sessions

Hello everyone,
I have a habit of adding custom commands like mkcdir (to make dir & do a cd into the newly created directory or combination of ls with it parameters to make shorthands, like ll).

mkcdir example: (taken from unix stackexchange)

mkcdir ()
{
    mkdir -p -- "$1" &&
       cd -P -- "$1"
}

Up until now, I would enter the above function in .bashrc and do a source .bashrc. That would make the change become available in the current bash terminal instance as well as the new ones.

However, in manjaro-gnome-21.2.2 when I add the above mentioned function and do source .bashrc, the change does not stick across terminals.

#
# ~/.bashrc
#

[[ $- != *i* ]] && return

colors() {
	local fgc bgc vals seq0

	printf "Color escapes are %s\n" '\e[${value};...;${value}m'
	printf "Values 30..37 are \e[33mforeground colors\e[m\n"
	printf "Values 40..47 are \e[43mbackground colors\e[m\n"
	printf "Value  1 gives a  \e[1mbold-faced look\e[m\n\n"

	# foreground colors
	for fgc in {30..37}; do
		# background colors
		for bgc in {40..47}; do
			fgc=${fgc#37} # white
			bgc=${bgc#40} # black

			vals="${fgc:+$fgc;}${bgc}"
			vals=${vals%%;}

			seq0="${vals:+\e[${vals}m}"
			printf "  %-9s" "${seq0:-(default)}"
			printf " ${seq0}TEXT\e[m"
			printf " \e[${vals:+${vals+$vals;}}1mBOLD\e[m"
		done
		echo; echo
	done
}

[ -r /usr/share/bash-completion/bash_completion ] && . /usr/share/bash-completion/bash_completion

# Change the window title of X terminals
case ${TERM} in
	xterm*|rxvt*|Eterm*|aterm|kterm|gnome*|interix|konsole*)
		PROMPT_COMMAND='echo -ne "\033]0;${USER}@${HOSTNAME%%.*}:${PWD/#$HOME/\~}\007"'
		;;
	screen*)
		PROMPT_COMMAND='echo -ne "\033_${USER}@${HOSTNAME%%.*}:${PWD/#$HOME/\~}\033\\"'
		;;
esac

use_color=true

# Set colorful PS1 only on colorful terminals.
# dircolors --print-database uses its own built-in database
# instead of using /etc/DIR_COLORS.  Try to use the external file
# first to take advantage of user additions.  Use internal bash
# globbing instead of external grep binary.
safe_term=${TERM//[^[:alnum:]]/?}   # sanitize TERM
match_lhs=""
[[ -f ~/.dir_colors   ]] && match_lhs="${match_lhs}$(<~/.dir_colors)"
[[ -f /etc/DIR_COLORS ]] && match_lhs="${match_lhs}$(</etc/DIR_COLORS)"
[[ -z ${match_lhs}    ]] \
	&& type -P dircolors >/dev/null \
	&& match_lhs=$(dircolors --print-database)
[[ $'\n'${match_lhs} == *$'\n'"TERM "${safe_term}* ]] && use_color=true

if ${use_color} ; then
	# Enable colors for ls, etc.  Prefer ~/.dir_colors #64489
	if type -P dircolors >/dev/null ; then
		if [[ -f ~/.dir_colors ]] ; then
			eval $(dircolors -b ~/.dir_colors)
		elif [[ -f /etc/DIR_COLORS ]] ; then
			eval $(dircolors -b /etc/DIR_COLORS)
		fi
	fi

	if [[ ${EUID} == 0 ]] ; then
		PS1='\[\033[01;31m\][\h\[\033[01;36m\] \W\[\033[01;31m\]]\$\[\033[00m\] '
	else
		PS1='\[\033[01;32m\][\u@\h\[\033[01;37m\] \W\[\033[01;32m\]]\$\[\033[00m\] '
	fi

	alias ls='ls --color=auto'
	alias grep='grep --colour=auto'
	alias egrep='egrep --colour=auto'
	alias fgrep='fgrep --colour=auto'
else
	if [[ ${EUID} == 0 ]] ; then
		# show root@ when we don't have colors
		PS1='\u@\h \W \$ '
	else
		PS1='\u@\h \w \$ '
	fi
fi

unset use_color safe_term match_lhs sh

#alias cp="cp -i"                          # confirm before overwriting something
#alias df='df -h'                          # human-readable sizes
#alias free='free -m'                      # show sizes in MB
#alias np='nano -w PKGBUILD'
#alias more=less

xhost +local:root > /dev/null 2>&1

# Bash won't get SIGWINCH if another process is in the foreground.
# Enable checkwinsize so that bash will check the terminal size when
# it regains control.  #65623
# http://cnswww.cns.cwru.edu/~chet/bash/FAQ (E11)
shopt -s checkwinsize

shopt -s expand_aliases

# export QT_SELECT=4

# Enable history appending instead of overwriting.  #139609
shopt -s histappend

#
# # ex - archive extractor
# # usage: ex <file>
ex ()
{
  if [ -f $1 ] ; then
    case $1 in
      *.tar.bz2)   tar xjf $1   ;;
      *.tar.gz)    tar xzf $1   ;;
      *.bz2)       bunzip2 $1   ;;
      *.rar)       unrar x $1     ;;
      *.gz)        gunzip $1    ;;
      *.tar)       tar xf $1    ;;
      *.tbz2)      tar xjf $1   ;;
      *.tgz)       tar xzf $1   ;;
      *.zip)       unzip $1     ;;
      *.Z)         uncompress $1;;
      *.7z)        7z x $1      ;;
      *)           echo "'$1' cannot be extracted via ex()" ;;
    esac
  else
    echo "'$1' is not a valid file"
  fi
}

# custom aliases
alias ll='ls -alF'

# custom functions
mkcdir ()
{
    mkdir -p -- "$1" &&
       cd -P -- "$1"
}

Output of running source .bashrc

zsh: command not found: shopt
zsh: command not found: complete
zsh: command not found: complete
zsh: command not found: complete
zsh: command not found: complete
zsh: command not found: complete
zsh: command not found: complete
zsh: command not found: complete
zsh: command not found: complete
zsh: command not found: complete
zsh: command not found: complete
/usr/share/bash-completion/bash_completion:1567: parse error near `|'
.bashrc:type:64: bad option: -P
zsh: command not found: shopt
zsh: command not found: shopt
zsh: command not found: shopt

mkcdir & ll works in this instance.

However, in new terminal instances,

$ mkcdir                                                                                                                                                                                         
zsh: correct 'mkcdir' to 'mkdir' [nyae]? n
zsh: command not found: mkcdir

How do I fix this? Please advice. Thank You.

About System:
manjaro-gnome-21.2.2
gnome version: 41.3
Windowing system: X11

Source .bashrc in the bash shell not in zsh.

2 Likes

apparently, your current shell is zsh
and you are making adjustments to the configuration file for bash
which is the wrong one and will not work

2 Likes

Understood guys. Taking your advice, I did some searching on how to make my changes stick in zsh. And here is what I found:

  • create ~/.zshrc if it does not exist
  • add the commands in that file
  • execute it: . ~/.zshrc
  • done

With the above set of steps my custom functions & aliases are now running perfectly across zsh instances.
Thanks.

Two points…

  1. If you declare a function in bash and you want this function to be available in subshells, then you have to export the function. An example follows below… :arrow_down:
some_function ()
{
   do_something
   do_another_thing
}
export -f some_function
  1. Both the GNOME and Plasma editions of Manjaro use zsh as the interactive shell in terminal windows nowadays — tty sessions still use bash. zsh is a very different shell, with a very different way of declaring and loading functions, and different initialization files.
3 Likes

Aragorn…

I was opening a subject about .bashrc not being invoked when the system suggested this posting was related so I saw your response about terminal sessions using zsh… which is why I’m asking my question in this thread verses a new one. Though a new one would probably make sense, depending on how well known this is. That said…

What I noticed was that .bashrc doesn’t seem to play any role UNLESS I ssh into the system. I checked /etc/passwd and it does call for bash, I checked the $SHELL value and it shows to be set to /bin/bash… Considering your statement on zsh… I thought I would inquire if I understood correctly and if so ask about where I might find additional information before I before I… before I… I guess I don’t know… I guess to dig in and find why /etc/passwd is being ignored, and what’s up with $SHELL… Well, the thought is a bit confusing so I’m probably getting ahead of myself…

SO… would you advise me on if I understood correctly and if so… where I might look to… hmm, understand more, I suppose.

Thank You
Dee

System Details
Description: Manjaro Linux
Release: 21.2.3
plasmashell 5.23.5
Qt: 5.15.2
KDE Frameworks: 5.90.0
kf5-config: 1.0

This is KDE specific. The KDE terminal emulator can be configured to use a specific shell. Find this setting and switch to bash if you want. There are multiple thread about this on the forum.

For example

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