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Re: The perils of editing .bashrc (Attn: base-files maintainer)


On Thu, 7 Jul 2005, Rex Eastbourne wrote:

> Is it advisable to edit one's .bashrc? I'd like to put in a bunch of
> customizations, aliases, etc., but I'm intimidated by the message
> saying that my .bashrc will not be updated by setup.exe if I modify
> it. Does this mean that I'll have to put in changes for new programs
> manually? If so, how can I customize my shell without losing
> setup.exe's automation?

What Andrew said.  Setup will never touch the .bashrc in your home
directory, whether you modify it or now.  The severe-sounding warning you
saw really refers to /etc/skel/.bashrc (copied to every new user's
directory, which is apparently what the base-files maintainer didn't count
on).  So yes, do go ahead and customize it -- that's what it's there for.

To the base-files maintainer: John, could you maybe tone the warning down
a bit?  Perhaps simply putting the following would be enough (and
certainly wouldn't sound as scary to new users):

"To pick up the latest recommended .bashrc content, look in
/etc/defaults/etc/skel/.bashrc.  Modifying /etc/skel/.bashrc directly
would prevent setup from updating it".

I would even borrow Andrew's phrase and say "This is the default .bashrc
file.  By all means, customize it to create a shell environment to your
liking." somewhere in the top comments.

HTH,
	Igor
-- 
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     |,4-  ) )-,_. ,\ (  `'-'		Igor Pechtchanski, Ph.D.
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"The Sun will pass between the Earth and the Moon tonight for a total
Lunar eclipse..." -- WCBS Radio Newsbrief, Oct 27 2004, 12:01 pm EDT

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