Mac OS X .bashrc not working

Question

I have a one-line .bashrc file in my home directory:

alias countlines='find . -type f -print0 | xargs -0 cat | wc -l'

But it is not creating the alias. Why might that be?

score 145 · Accepted Answer · answered Feb 12 '11 at 14:04

145

In OSX, .bash_profile is used instead of .bashrc.

And yes, the .bash_profile file should be located in /Users/YourName/
(In other words, ~/.bash_profile)

For example, /Users/Aaron/.bash_profile

answered Feb 12 '11 at 14:04

Azz

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This is not the right answer. Aliases are not inherited, so, if you only define them in .bash_profile, they won't be defined in non-login shells (eg when you run bash inside bash). – LaC Feb 13 '11 at 18:49
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Or one can use bash_aliases which has the same effect as putting the aliases in bashrc, but more manageable: http://ss64.com/osx/syntax-bashrc.html – Atul Ingle Dec 10 '13 at 13:22
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in my .bash_profile I just wrote one line to alias (sort of ) bashrc -> `source ~/.bashrc` – Eric Hodonsky Apr 05 '16 at 16:49
a girl almost threw the mac at me for arguing blindly that placing anything in ~/.bashrc on will work. – Shanthakumar Oct 14 '20 at 07:19
@EricHodonsky is living in 2030. You're a lion amongst sheep. – Sam Feb 25 '21 at 06:05
saved my life, I thought I lost this file. – abdoulsn Apr 09 '21 at 20:23

score 112 · Answer 2 · answered Feb 12 '11 at 15:48

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.[bash_]profile and .bashrc can be used on both OS X and Linux. The former is loaded when the shell is a login shell; the latter when it is not. The real difference is that Linux runs a login shell when the user logs into a graphical session, and then, when you open a terminal application, those shells are non-login shells; whereas OS X does not run a shell upon graphical login, and when you run a shell from Terminal.app, that is a login shell.

If you want your aliases to work in both login and non-login shells (and you usually do), you should put them in .bashrc and source .bashrc in your .bash_profile, with a line like this:

[ -r ~/.bashrc ] && source ~/.bashrc

This applies to any system using bash.

answered Feb 12 '11 at 15:48

LaC

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+1 with the caveat that everything in .bashrc will be run again for sub-shells (and subsub-, subsubsub-, etc), so e.g. `PATH=$PATH:/my/private/binaries` will lead to PATH bloat. See [this](http://superuser.com/questions/39751/add-directory-to-path-if-its-not-already-there/39995#39995) for a workaround. – Gordon Davisson Feb 12 '11 at 18:51
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True. Since exported instance variables are inherited, I just set them in `.profile` instead of `.bashrc`. – LaC Feb 13 '11 at 11:28
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@LaC can you explain _Since exported instance variables are inherited, I just set them in `.profile_`…? – sam Jan 14 '14 at 18:11
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@sam, I don't know where "instance" came from. I just meant "exported variables". Unfortunately I cannot edit that comment. – LaC Jan 15 '14 at 06:35
I know what ```source ~/.bashrc``` does; but what does ```[ -r ~/.bashrc ]``` do, and is it necessary? – dinosaur Jun 04 '16 at 05:22
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@dinosaur: "-r" checks if the file is readable. – mhvelplund Jun 04 '16 at 08:48
...pertinently for the current situation, *exists* and is readable, so if there is no `~/.bashrc`, that check prevents an error being caused by trying to `source` a nonexisting file. – Charles Duffy Mar 06 '17 at 15:37

score 15 · Answer 3 · answered Sep 30 '20 at 16:21

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Since MacOS Catalina zsh is the default shell. On this OS add the alias into ~/.zshrc

Pre Catalina add the alias to ~/.bash_profile

answered Sep 30 '20 at 16:21

Gabriel Gates

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This should be the top answer. – o12d10 Aug 08 '21 at 18:14
This worked for me on Big Sur. Terminal is using zsh. – Chris Hayes Aug 12 '21 at 15:55
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This worked for me on Ventura. – Jackson Walters Nov 27 '22 at 22:18

score 9 · Answer 4 · edited Aug 10 '23 at 16:11

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I tried using the solution to update .bash_profile and .bashrc but that did not work because MacOS >= 10.15 (Catalina) is using zsh as default.

So:

create a new file, ~/.zprofile, add aliases there.
use command source ~/.zprofile to execute in same shell or just open a new terminal.

and your changes should be permament.

edited Aug 10 '23 at 16:11

Destroy666

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answered Mar 23 '20 at 16:48

Bogdan Tudorache

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command 'source ~/.zprofile' just executes your code in bashrc or zprofile. – Harshit Jain Aug 10 '23 at 15:03

score 9 · Answer 5 · answered Jun 29 '11 at 12:48

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Or create a sym link called .bash_profile pointed at your .bashrc

ln -s .bashrc .bash_profile

answered Jun 29 '11 at 12:48

Barrett

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On newer versions of OS X, the terminal may be using ZSH, which means `.zshrc` should be used instead of `.bash_profile`. – Chris Hayes Aug 12 '21 at 15:58

score 3 · Answer 6 · answered Feb 12 '11 at 15:27

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It is not being aliased because .bash_profile is used instead of .bashrc on Mac OS X.

So you have two options:

Put the alias in your ~/.bash_profile
Or source your .bashrc from your .bash_profile by adding this line to the .bash_profile:

. ~/.bashrc

answered Feb 12 '11 at 15:27

Wuffers

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score 2 · Answer 7 · edited Apr 13 '17 at 12:45

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On Mac OS X Yosemite, run the following command:

vi ~/.profile

Then add the following line:

source ~/.bashrc

Now save and close .profile, then open a new Terminal window or just run:

source ~/.profile

See also this answer. It worked on v10.10.3.

edited Apr 13 '17 at 12:45

Community

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answered May 05 '15 at 00:55

Ricardo

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This is little more than a rehash of the answers from four years ago. – G-Man Says 'Reinstate Monica' May 05 '15 at 01:36
Sure, just an easy eay to read and apply it. Plus a small contribution - since the other mentioned files were not available on my OS Yosemite. – Ricardo May 05 '15 at 19:23

score 0 · Answer 8 · answered Aug 25 '23 at 14:19

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If you are on MacOS, you might be using the Z shell. To check, type:

echo $0

See if the output is -zsh. If so, you need to add your lines into ~/.zshrc

answered Aug 25 '23 at 14:19

Emre Tapcı

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The question has already been answered and accepted and it was not zsh. – Rohit Gupta Aug 25 '23 at 14:25

Mac OS X .bashrc not working

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