1 | <?xml version="1.0" encoding="ISO-8859-1"?> |
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2 | <!DOCTYPE sect1 PUBLIC "-//OASIS//DTD DocBook XML V4.4//EN" |
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3 | "http://www.oasis-open.org/docbook/xml/4.4/docbookx.dtd" [ |
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4 | <!ENTITY % general-entities SYSTEM "../../general.ent"> |
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5 | %general-entities; |
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6 | ]> |
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7 | |
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8 | <sect1 id="ch-scripts-profile"> |
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9 | <title>The Bash Shell Startup Files</title> |
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10 | <?dbhtml filename="profile.html"?> |
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11 | |
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12 | <indexterm zone="ch-scripts-profile"> |
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13 | <primary sortas="e-/etc/profile">/etc/profile</primary> |
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14 | </indexterm> |
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15 | |
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16 | <para>The shell program <command>/bin/bash</command> (hereafter |
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17 | referred to as <quote>the shell</quote>) uses a collection of startup |
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18 | files to help create an environment to run in. Each file has a |
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19 | specific use and may affect login and interactive environments |
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20 | differently. The files in the <filename |
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21 | class="directory">/etc</filename> directory provide global settings. |
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22 | If an equivalent file exists in the home directory, it may override |
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23 | the global settings.</para> |
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24 | |
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25 | <para>An interactive login shell is started after a successful login, |
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26 | using <command>/bin/login</command>, by reading the |
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27 | <filename>/etc/passwd</filename> file. An interactive non-login shell |
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28 | is started at the command-line (e.g., |
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29 | <prompt>[prompt]$</prompt><command>/bin/bash</command>). A |
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30 | non-interactive shell is usually present when a shell script is |
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31 | running. It is non-interactive because it is processing a script and |
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32 | not waiting for user input between commands.</para> |
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33 | |
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34 | <para>For more information, see <command>info bash</command> under the |
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35 | <emphasis>Bash Startup Files and Interactive Shells</emphasis> section.</para> |
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36 | |
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37 | <para>The files <filename>/etc/profile</filename> and |
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38 | <filename>~/.bash_profile</filename> are read when the shell is |
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39 | invoked as an interactive login shell.</para> |
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40 | |
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41 | <para>The base <filename>/etc/profile</filename> below sets some |
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42 | environment variables necessary for native language support. Setting |
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43 | them properly results in:</para> |
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44 | |
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45 | <itemizedlist> |
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46 | <listitem> |
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47 | <para>The output of programs translated into the native language</para> |
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48 | </listitem> |
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49 | <listitem> |
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50 | <para>Correct classification of characters into letters, digits and |
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51 | other classes. This is necessary for <command>bash</command> to |
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52 | properly accept non-ASCII characters in command lines in non-English |
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53 | locales</para> |
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54 | </listitem> |
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55 | <listitem> |
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56 | <para>The correct alphabetical sorting order for the country</para> |
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57 | </listitem> |
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58 | <listitem> |
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59 | <para>Appropriate default paper size</para> |
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60 | </listitem> |
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61 | <listitem> |
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62 | <para>Correct formatting of monetary, time, and date values</para> |
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63 | </listitem> |
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64 | </itemizedlist> |
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65 | |
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66 | <para>This script also sets the <envar>INPUTRC</envar> environment variable |
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67 | that makes Bash and Readline use the <filename>/etc/inputrc</filename> file |
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68 | created earlier.</para> |
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69 | |
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70 | <para>Replace <replaceable>[ll]</replaceable> below with the |
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71 | two-letter code for the desired language (e.g., <quote>en</quote>) and |
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72 | <replaceable>[CC]</replaceable> with the two-letter code for the |
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73 | appropriate country (e.g., <quote>GB</quote>). |
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74 | <replaceable>[charmap]</replaceable> should be replaced with the |
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75 | canonical charmap for your chosen locale.</para> |
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76 | |
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77 | <para>The list of all locales supported by Glibc can be obtained by running |
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78 | the following command:</para> |
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79 | |
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80 | <screen role="nodump"><userinput>locale -a</userinput></screen> |
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81 | |
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82 | <para>Locales can have a number of synonyms, e.g. <quote>ISO-8859-1</quote> |
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83 | is also referred to as <quote>iso8859-1</quote> and <quote>iso88591</quote>. |
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84 | Some applications cannot handle the various synonyms correctly, so it is |
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85 | safest to choose the canonical name for a particular locale. To determine |
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86 | the canonical name, run the following command, where <replaceable>[locale |
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87 | name]</replaceable> is the output given by <command>locale -a</command> for |
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88 | your preferred locale (<quote>en_GB.iso88591</quote> in our example).</para> |
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89 | |
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90 | <screen role="nodump"><userinput>LC_ALL=<replaceable>[locale name]</replaceable> locale charmap</userinput></screen> |
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91 | |
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92 | <para>For the <quote>en_GB.iso88591</quote> locale, the above command |
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93 | will print:</para> |
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94 | |
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95 | <screen><computeroutput>ISO-8859-1</computeroutput></screen> |
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96 | |
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97 | <para>This results in a final locale setting of <quote>en_GB.ISO-8859-1</quote>. |
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98 | It is important that the locale found using the heuristic above is tested prior |
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99 | to it being added to the Bash startup files:</para> |
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100 | |
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101 | <screen role="nodump"><userinput>LC_ALL=[locale name] locale country |
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102 | LC_ALL=[locale name] locale language |
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103 | LC_ALL=[locale name] locale charmap |
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104 | LC_ALL=[locale name] locale int_curr_symbol |
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105 | LC_ALL=[locale name] locale int_prefix</userinput></screen> |
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106 | |
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107 | <para>The above commands should print the country and language names, the |
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108 | character encoding used by the locale, the local currency and the prefix |
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109 | to dial before the telephone number in order to get into the country. If |
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110 | any of the commands above fail with a message similar to the one shown |
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111 | below, this means that your locale was either not installed in Chapter 6 |
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112 | or is not supported by the default installation of Glibc.</para> |
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113 | |
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114 | <screen><computeroutput>locale: Cannot set LC_* to default locale: No such file or directory</computeroutput></screen> |
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115 | |
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116 | <para>If this happens, you should either install the desired locale using |
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117 | the <command>localedef</command> command, or consider choosing a different |
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118 | locale. Further instructions assume that there are no such error messages |
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119 | from Glibc.</para> |
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120 | |
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121 | <para>Some packages beyond LFS may also lack support for your chosen locale. |
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122 | One example is the X library (part of the X Window System), which outputs |
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123 | the following error message:</para> |
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124 | |
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125 | <screen><computeroutput>Warning: locale not supported by Xlib, locale set to C</computeroutput></screen> |
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126 | |
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127 | <para>Sometimes it is possible to fix this by removing the charmap part of |
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128 | the locale specification, as long as that does not change the character map |
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129 | that Glibc associates with the locale (this can be checked by running the |
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130 | <command>locale charmap</command> command in both locales). For example, |
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131 | one would have to change "de_DE.ISO-8859-15@euro" to |
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132 | "de_DE@euro" in order to get this locale recognized by Xlib.</para> |
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133 | |
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134 | <para>Other packages can also function incorrectly (but may not necessarily |
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135 | display any error messages) if the locale name does not meet their expectations. |
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136 | In those cases, investigating how other Linux distributions support your locale |
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137 | might provide some useful information.</para> |
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138 | |
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139 | <para>Once the proper locale settings have been determined, create the |
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140 | <filename>/etc/profile</filename> file:</para> |
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141 | |
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142 | <screen><userinput>cat > /etc/profile << "EOF" |
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143 | <literal># Begin /etc/profile |
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144 | |
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145 | export LANG=<replaceable>[ll]</replaceable>_<replaceable>[CC]</replaceable>.<replaceable>[charmap]</replaceable> |
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146 | export INPUTRC=/etc/inputrc |
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147 | |
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148 | # End /etc/profile</literal> |
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149 | EOF</userinput></screen> |
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150 | |
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151 | <note> |
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152 | <para>The <quote>C</quote> (default) and <quote>en_US</quote> |
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153 | (the recommended one for United States English users) locales are |
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154 | different.</para> |
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155 | </note> |
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156 | |
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157 | <para>Setting the keyboard layout, screen font, and locale-related |
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158 | environment variables are the only internationalization steps needed to |
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159 | support locales that use ordinary single-byte encodings and left-to-right |
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160 | writing direction. More complex cases (including UTF-8 based locales) |
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161 | require additional steps and additional patches because many applications |
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162 | tend to not work properly under such conditions. These steps and patches |
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163 | are not included in the LFS book and such locales are not yet supported |
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164 | by LFS.</para> |
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165 | |
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166 | </sect1> |
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