How do you run a script at * nix login?

Question

I know that I once know how to do this, but ... how do you run a script (bash OK) when entering unix?

Answer 1

From wikipedia Bash

When Bash starts, it executes commands in different scripts.

When Bash is called as an interactive login, it first reads and executes commands from the / etc / profile file, if that file exists. After reading this file, it searches for ~ / .bash_profile, ~ / .bash_login and ~ / .profile in that order and reads and executes commands from the first one that exists and is readable.

When the login shell completes, Bash reads and executes commands from the ~ / .bash_logout file, if one exists.

When the interactive shell, which is not the login shell, is launched, Bash reads and executes commands from ~ / .bashrc if this file exists. This can be with the --norc option. The -rcfile file option forces Bash to read and execute commands from instead of ~ / .bashrc.

Answer 2

Upon entering the system, most shells execute a login script that you can use to execute your own script. The login script executed by the shell depends, of course, on the shell:

• bash: .bash_profile, .bash_login, .profile (for backward compatibility)
• sh: .profile
• tcsh and csh: .login
• zsh: .zshrc

You can probably find out which shell you are using by doing

echo $SHELL 

from the prompt.

For a broader definition of 'login', it is useful to know that on most distributions, when X starts, your .xsessionrc will execute when the X session starts.

Answer 3

When using Bash, the first of ~/.bash_profile , ~/.bash_login and ~/.profile will be launched for the interactive login shell. I believe that ~/.profile usually run by Unix shells other than Bash. Bash will run ~/.bashrc for an interactive shell without logging in.

I usually put everything that I always want to install in .bashrc , and then run it from .bash_profile , where I also create a few things that should only start when I log in, for example, setting up ssh-agent or running screen .

Answer 4

If you want to run one script and only one script, you can do this by default.

 echo "/usr/bin/uptime" >> /etc/shells vim /etc/passwd * username:x:uid:grp:message:homedir:/usr/bin/uptime 

can have interesting effects :) (its not safe, so don't trust it too much. It doesn't seem like your default shell should be a script that erases your disk ... although, I can imagine a scenario where it could be surprisingly useful)

Answer 5

Put it in your bash profile :

 ~/.bash_profile 

Answer 6

If you are on OSX, then it ~/.profile

Answer 7

Launchd is the preferred way in OS X.

If you want it to run in your login, put it in ~/Library/LaunchAgents

Start Launchd item

 launchctl load /Library/LaunchDaemons/com.bob.plist 

Stop item

 launchctl unload /Library/LaunchDaemons/com.bob.plist 

Example com.bob.plist

 <?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?> <!DOCTYPE plist PUBLIC "-//Apple//DTD PLIST 1.0//EN" "http://www.apple.com/DTDs/PropertyList-1.0.dtd"> <plist version="1.0"> <dict> <key>Label</key> <string>com.bob</string> <key>RunAtLoad</key> <true/> <key>ProgramArguments</key> <array> <string>/usr/bin/java</string> <string>-jar</string> <string>/Users/user/program.jar</string> </array> </dict> </plist> 

Answer 8

I was disappointed with this problem for several days. Nothing worked on ubuntu. If I put the call in / etc / profile, it all crashed when I tried to login. I could not use “Launcher Applications”, as that was not what I wanted. This installs only the script for this current user.

Finally, I found this little article: http://standards.freedesktop.org/autostart-spec/autostart-spec-0.5.html

Decision:

• find out the path of $ XDG_CONFIG_DIRS:

  echo $ XDG_CONFIG_DIRS

• put your script in this directory

Answer 9

Add an entry to /etc/profile that executes the script. This will be done during every login. If you only do this for your account, use one of your login scripts (e.g. .bash_profile ) to run it.

Answer 10

Find your local bash system man page for ^ INVOCATION for information on which file will be read at startup.

 man bash /^INVOCATION 

Also in the FILES section

  ~/.bash_profile The personal initialization file, executed for login shells ~/.bashrc The individual per-interactive-shell startup file 

Add your script to the desired file. Make sure the script is in $ PATH or using the absolute path to the script file.

Answer 11

script ~/.bash_profile launched at login.