Linux.com continues their Command Line Interface series, this time looking at bash.
An environment is a collection of concepts that express the things a computer system does in terms designed to be understandable and coherent, and a look and feel that is comfortable. Unix shells present you with such concepts as files, directories, and standard input and output, while Unix itself gives you tools to work with these, such as file manipulation commands, text editors, and print queues. There are also more sophisticated ways of customizing your shell environment.
This article is excerpted from the recently published book "Learning the bash Shell."
The .bash_profile, .bash_logout, and .bashrc files
Three files in your home directory have a special meaning to bash, providing a way for you to set up your account environment automatically when you log in and when you invoke another bash shell, and allowing you to perform commands when you log out. These files may already exist in your home directory, depending on how your system administrator has set up your account. If they don't exist, your account is using only the default system file /etc/profile. You can easily create your own bash files using your favorite text editor.
