problems with system-config-display and crtl-alt-backspace

[Paul Allen Newell]

Ed Greshko wrote:
> Paul Allen Newell wrote:
>   
>> Ed Greshko wrote:
>>     
>>> Paul Allen Newell wrote:
>>>  
>>>       
>>>> Suvayu Ali wrote:
>>>>    
>>>>         
>>>>> Hi Aaron,
>>>>>
>>>>> On Monday 28 December 2009 02:11 PM, Aaron Konstam wrote:
>>>>>      
>>>>>           
>>>>>> On Mon, 2009-12-28 at 03:04 -0800, Suvayu Ali wrote:
>>>>>>        
>>>>>>             
>>>>>>> ~/.bash_profile gets sourced by any "well behaved" desktop
>>>>>>> environment
>>>>>>> when ever you login. In my experience XFCE and WindowMaker does
>>>>>>> this. (I
>>>>>>> don't use Gnome/KDE as often, so can't comment on them).
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>> ~/.bashrc gets sourced when ever you open an interactive shell,
>>>>>>> maybe by
>>>>>>> opening a terminal emulator or login in remotely.
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>> This means whenever you login remotely both ~/.bash_profile&
>>>>>>> ~/.bashrc
>>>>>>> gets sourced. However if you open a terminal emulator like
>>>>>>> gnome-terminal or xterm only your ~/.bashrc gets sourced.
>>>>>>>           
>>>>>>>               
>>>>>> It is my impression that.bashrc is souurced whenever any program
>>>>>> is run
>>>>>> in a bash environment. I am willing to be corrected.
>>>>>>
>>>>>>         
>>>>>>             
>>>>> By bash environment if you mean a terminal emulator then that is
>>>>> exactly what I meant in my previous post. However if for example you
>>>>> run something using a menu or shortcut on your desktop or maybe
>>>>> Alt-F2 then ~/.bashrc is _not_ sourced, and environment variables
>>>>> defined there won't be available to you. If you want something like
>>>>> that, you need to define it in your ~/.bash_profile.
>>>>>
>>>>> Hope this makes my point clearer. :)
>>>>>       
>>>>>           
>>>> Naive question .... it sounds like if a user has selected bash as
>>>> shell-of-choice, then bash_profile is there for any operation
>>>> (terminal or not) that would involve the use of the shell? I might not
>>>> be saying this right, but I am trying to understand just how global
>>>> bash_profile is and, if not, why it isn't as it seems by your email
>>>> that for all intents and purposes it is global to a user's login
>>>> process.
>>>>
>>>> Thanks for bearing with the question given that you already know I am
>>>> running tcsh and therefore this is a learning exercise as opposed to a
>>>> real occurrence in my usage of fedora.
>>>>
>>>> Paul
>>>>
>>>>     
>>>>         
>>> Why not just read "man bash"?
>>>
>>>   
>>>       
>> Because bring up the "man bash" pages and searching for "profile"
>> gives me info about what happens with a shell or a non-interactive
>> --login shell and doesn't give me any meta information that either
>> answers my question or makes it clear that I am asking the wrong
>> question.
>>
>> http://www.gnu.org/software/bash/manual/bashref.html
>>
>> One of the reasons to watch/read this forum is to get answers to
>> questions that man pages don't supply. In my experience, if you want
>> to know exactly how to do something with a given command/whatever,
>> they are great. If you want to get an understanding of the overall
>> picture of the command/whatever, they aren't very good as they assume
>> you have already commit to "this is what I am using so how do I do
>> this particular operation".
>>
>> To ask what is the scope of ".bash_profile" outside of sourcing order
>> in particular occurrences, I don't see it in the man pages.
>>
>> I am more than happy to be told that I am totally incorrect in my
>> interpretation of this.
>>
>> Thanks (and that includes making me double-check the man pages to
>> prove to myself that I am not seeing the answer I am looking for!),
>> Paul
>>
>>     
> I suppose I don't understand your question or what makes you think the
> man page doesn't answer it.....
>
> The man page tells you under what conditions the various files
> (/etc/profile, ~/.bash_profile ~/.bash_login etc) are read depending on
> what type of shell (interactive, login). 
>
> Are you saying there is a situation not covered?
>
> Remember, everything that is executed is executed under a shell.
>
>   
Ed,

Thanks for bearing with me on this.

I think part of my confusion is that I am not understanding whether a 
login shell covers everything that is done once I have logged in via 
splash screen or if it is confined to "logining into a shell". If the 
former, then I would assume bash_profiles is hit once and everything 
done thereafter would be under its command. If the latter, then I am 
probably unclear about whether launching a terminal is a "login" act 
(hence under bash_profile only within that shell).

As I said on my initial reply to this thread, "Naive question". I may be 
missing a fundamental understanding of shells and logins and all that 
sort of stuff.

Paul