iTerm/zsh not reading .bashrc OR .bash_profile

Question

In ~/.bash_profile I have :

if [ -f ~/.bashrc ]; then
    source ~/.bashrc
fi

In ~/.bashrc I have some aliases

When I load a new iTerm window, my aliases do not work. If I source ~/.bashrc they work. If I source ~.bash_profile they work.

Isn't at least one of these supposed to be sourced automatically?

What might be causing it not to work properly?

score 83 · Accepted Answer · answered Jan 19 '15 at 18:54

83

The answer is simple, almost evident in the question. Here's why:

The shell zsh is not bash, it is a different shell. zsh will not use the default files built for bash: .bashrc or .bash_profile. These two files are startup configuration files for bash. zsh has its own startup configuration files.

You can find out more about them here on the zsh intro page:

There are five startup files that zsh will read commands from:
$ZDOTDIR/.zshenv
$ZDOTDIR/.zprofile
$ZDOTDIR/.zshrc
$ZDOTDIR/.zlogin
$ZDOTDIR/.zlogout

You had mentioned your aliases don't work, to fix this, apply your aliases here like so:

~/.zshrc

alias sz='source ~/.zshrc'     # Easily source your ~/.zshrc file.
alias ls='pwd; ls --color'     # Alias 'ls' to: pwd + ls + color.

answered Jan 19 '15 at 18:54

p̻̻̥r̥̻̥o̻j̤͛ec͔t̞dp

1,397
10
15

2

Thank you. Note that `ls --color` gave me `illegal option` in both `bash` and `zsh` on OSX 10.10, but not on Linux -- I'll look into it. Cheers. – Bradley Flood Jul 10 '15 at 02:18
1

I don't have a Mac to test on but I think this has to do with the ls implementation on OS X, I don't think it has the - -color argument. If I remember I'll look it up. – p̻̻̥r̥̻̥o̻j̤͛ec͔t̞dp Jul 10 '15 at 02:25
3

"... zsh has its own startup configuration files." this is what he probably asks for huh? just say "dude, it is ~/.zshrc". – eyurdakul Oct 15 '18 at 12:32
1

+1 great tips in the answer for macOS Catalina now using zsh officially. Thank you. – therobyouknow Nov 13 '19 at 13:59
For macOS, use `ls -G` insted of `ls --color` – jonny Mar 10 '21 at 09:35

Alok Swain · Answer 2 · 2019-05-06T11:42:11.910

39

If you are using zsh then to force source .bash_profile

in ~/.zshrc add the line below

source ~/.bash_profile

P.S - I havent investigated whether this can cause any problem.

edited May 06 '19 at 11:42

answered Apr 04 '19 at 12:53

Alok Swain

491
4
5

3

I guess this answer would be helpful after release of macOS 10.5 Catalina in order to port bash_profile from bash to zsh. – Oleksii Kyslytsyn Sep 29 '19 at 12:23
1

Fast and effective! – Roberto Manfreda Oct 14 '19 at 12:34
1

Note this is very bad idea if your `.bash_profile` calls `source .bashrc`. Then you'll have a zsh shell loading a bunch of bash code and probably do weird behavior. – cgnorthcutt Feb 19 '20 at 23:33
1

@cgnorthcutt Why is loading bash code a problem? If it's just setting up some simple aliases, for example. – James Koss Mar 05 '20 at 15:18
3

@JamesKoss Say the next day you install a program that modifies your .bashrc to loop over a bunch of other aliases to add. Oops... zsh and bash use different looping indices, and now your .zshrc is broken. – cgnorthcutt Mar 05 '20 at 20:49

I Don't Exist · Answer 3 · 2020-03-30T07:15:13.063

3

Copy the lines from ~/.bash_profile to ~/.zshrc

cat ~/.bash_profile >> ~/.zshrc

And open a new terminal tab/window or use source ~/.zshrc

edited Mar 30 '20 at 07:15

answered Dec 03 '19 at 16:56

I Don't Exist

131
3

1

This deleted all my ~/.zshrc previous contents. – Gerard Reches Mar 28 '20 at 22:21
5

@GerardReches Sorry for the mess. In my case, I didn't have `~/.zshrc` so `>` will create and add the lines from `~/.bash_profile`. you should have used `>>` update operator to append `~/.zshrc. – I Don't Exist Mar 30 '20 at 07:14

iTerm/zsh not reading .bashrc OR .bash_profile

3 Answers3