this post was submitted on 18 Jul 2024
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Which one??? (programming.dev)
submitted 3 months ago* (last edited 3 months ago) by [email protected] to c/[email protected]
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Fuck it, .zshrc it is.

Image transcription:

  • Top text: I STILL DON'T KNOW WHAT SHOULD GO IN .*RC VERSUS .*PROFILE
  • Bottom text: AND AT THIS POINT I'M AFRAID TO ASK
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[–] [email protected] 55 points 3 months ago (3 children)

I found this diagram on SO at one point but I can’t find the post and it is the best explanation I have found for how all of the files work for bash and zsh, each color is an individual path of execution (eg, follow the red line).

Bottom line though, it only really matters if you are overriding something that is already defined, for example I tell my users to use zshrc and I provide defaults and common things in zprofile because zshrc is executed last when they login.

[–] [email protected] 39 points 3 months ago (2 children)

I feel like I couldn't make this more confusing if I tried. What is doing on with the golden arrows around /etc/profile??

[–] [email protected] 28 points 3 months ago (1 children)

That's decades of legacy for you...

I bet each step/arrow/decision had a good reason at some point, but most of them probably back when computers lived in caves and hunted their tapes using spears and rocks.

I feel like we're slowly reaching a point where the complexity is collapsing in on itself - just look at the absolute chaos a modern web app is.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 3 months ago

I was referring more to the graphical representation that the actual flows.

[–] [email protected] 16 points 3 months ago

Agreed! It's cathartic to see it laid out so terrifying. Now I feel less bad for never understanding it.

[–] [email protected] 8 points 3 months ago (1 children)

What do the differently coloured arrows mean? I'm confused.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 3 months ago* (last edited 3 months ago) (1 children)

Select the color which matches the steps before filenames ((non-)login and (non-)interactive), then follow that arrow the rest of the way. There's more colors in Bash because Bash makes a distinction between remote and local shells.

Another way to look at the same data for Zsh (note: $ZDOTDIR will be used instead of $HOME if it's defined at any step along the way):

File neither interactive login both
/etc/zshenv x x x x
${ZDOTDIR:-$HOME}/.zshenv x x x x
${ZDOTDIR:-$HOME}/.zprofile x x
${ZDOTDIR:-$HOME}/.zshrc x x
${ZDOTDIR:-$HOME}/.zlogin x x
${ZDOTDIR:-$HOME}/.zlogout x x

One confusion on the Bash side of the diagram is that you see branching paths into ~/.profile, ~/.bash_profile and ~/.bash_login. Bash will use for ~/.bash_profile, ~/.bash_login, and ~/.profile, in that order, and execute only the first one that exists and is readable.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 3 months ago (1 children)

And what's confusing is that many times those files still manually call the others to make it more logical like zsh. That's what I remember at least, it's been quite a while since I used bash.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 3 months ago

manually call the others

Yeah, most distros will set up source chains to make things nicer for users.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 3 months ago* (last edited 3 months ago)

Is this a diagram for how it should work? Not how it actually works? Like I put my stuff in the ~/.bashrc, mostly because I think the debian one says like "put your fun stuff below here" or something. The green and grey lines go through the ~/.bashrc, but both of them go through the "no login" bubble in the diagram. But I know my ~/.bashrc works, so the diagram is a suggestion?

[–] [email protected] 33 points 3 months ago* (last edited 3 months ago) (1 children)

It's all about context. If you write a convenience function and put it in zshrc, scripts you run from the cli will not have access to the function as defined in zshrc. Same with aliases added by zsh plugins etc.

If you need "the thing" on the command line, zshrc. If you also need it in scripts you run from the cli, toss it in the profile file.

ETA: I personally keep the functions I want to access from scripts in .zshenv as I recall reading that this file is ALWAYS sourced.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 3 months ago (1 children)

What kind of functions do you write which you share between your scripts? Generally if I'm wanting to reuse a non-trivial function, I extend the functionality of the first script instead.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 3 months ago* (last edited 3 months ago) (2 children)

All of the repos for my GitHub sourced vim plugins live under one parent directory. I symlink to them from ~/.vim

One example is a simple function that pushes the top level repo directory onto my dir stack and then runs a loop where it pushes each subdir into the stack, runs "ggpull" then pops back to the top level repo directory. ggpull is an alias added by the zsh git plugin. After all repos have been updated it pops back to my original pwd.

I run this as part of my "update all the things" script but sometimes I also want to run it in demand from the cli. So I want this function in all scopes and I want it to have access to "ggpull" in all of those scopes.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 3 months ago

I also "misuse" timewarrior a bit and use it to time things like "how much time do I spend waiting for salt to run". That has its own timewarrior db and a wrapper function for pointing the command at said db. I use this in both login and non login shell contexts.

[–] [email protected] 0 points 3 months ago* (last edited 3 months ago)

Yeah, I'd write this as a single update script with options to update vimplugins or update pkg or update all.

I see that you want it to be a function so you can get the chdir as a side effect, but mixing that with updating doesn't make sense to me.

[–] [email protected] 27 points 3 months ago (4 children)

Switching to Fish was the best decision I ever made in my terminal. Besides using tmux.

[–] [email protected] 8 points 3 months ago (1 children)

Isn't the POSIX incompatibility a major roadblock when scripting?

[–] [email protected] 12 points 3 months ago

Not really, you can make .fish scripts or call "bash script.sh" when it's more appropriate to be posix compliant

[–] [email protected] 5 points 3 months ago* (last edited 3 months ago) (1 children)

Yeah. Fish just simplifies life everywhere. No longer do I need to care about those silly files or other configurations for basic stuff like search history.

Best decision ever.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 3 months ago

The only thing I miss in fish is $?

I know $status exists but my fingers don’t.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 3 months ago (1 children)

I have sort of been eyeing fish on and off for years. I enjoy my oh my zsh setup and have it somewhat customized. I use a modified version of the funky theme. (I can share if interested.) When I'm at work I don't try new things that might affect my productivity (like trying a new shell) and when I have motivation to do techy stuff in my free time I really need to utilize it to do what I want because my focus really meanders.

[–] [email protected] 0 points 3 months ago (1 children)

That’s fair. But look at it this way, when you’re at work you’re being paid for it, and you might eventually improve your productivity.

Also, you can have a look at oh my fish, it’s an alternative to omz I used before switching to starship.

[–] [email protected] 0 points 3 months ago

I feel pretty productive with CLI stuff. Fish does look nifty though. I'll give it a shot sometime. Oil has been intriguing too, I've enjoyed reading updates about it over the years back on r/programming. https://www.oilshell.org/cross-ref.html?tag=OSH#OSH

[–] [email protected] 1 points 3 months ago

Alright stranger, let’s hear it. What is it about Fish that you love so much?

I’ve been generally happy with bash or zsh, pretty much whatever is installed by default (and I honestly don’t know the difference between the two I just mentioned 😬).

[–] [email protected] 24 points 3 months ago (1 children)

pretty sure that's your dating profile. And/or cat photos.

[–] [email protected] 22 points 3 months ago

cat ~/Photos/cat.jpeg >> ~/.dating_profile

[–] [email protected] 16 points 3 months ago (1 children)

Hey, I'm a cool kid, too! I have a custom .nanorc

[–] [email protected] 6 points 3 months ago

Show us!

[–] [email protected] 14 points 3 months ago (1 children)

Afaik the difference is whether a session is interactive or not, and non-interactive ones don't source the rc

[–] [email protected] 0 points 3 months ago (1 children)

But what would I want in a login shell that I don't also want in a non login shell?

[–] [email protected] 1 points 3 months ago

Presumably just to get rid of unnecessary stuff that would slow down the start of all bash instances. Also aliases that could fuck with scripts

[–] [email protected] 11 points 3 months ago

When in doubt, ~/.zshrc. It's the right choice 99% of the time. Otherwise, there's a chance you fuck up scripts you've installed which assume no shell options have been changed in non-interactive contexts.

[–] [email protected] 8 points 3 months ago

So, assuming bash is your shell, the ~/.bash_profile is executed for login shells for the user logging in.

~/.bashrc is the initialization script for when starting a bash session (for the current user).

In my experience, the ~/.bashrc will also execute ~/.bash_profile if it exists. So you can use either.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 3 months ago (1 children)

I just thow shit wherever it works lol

[–] [email protected] 18 points 3 months ago* (last edited 3 months ago) (1 children)

You've shared the true bash configuration flow chart.

  1. Add this line to your .bashrc.
  2. If that didn't work, move it into .bash_profile.
  3. If that didn't work, call up that bash fanatic you know, and let them screw with both files for like 15 minutes.
  4. If that didn't work, there's this tarot card reader I know that comes very recommended. Maybe we can get a bulk discount.
[–] [email protected] 10 points 3 months ago (1 children)

We all know what tarot were gettin

[–] [email protected] 2 points 3 months ago (1 children)

Works every time

[–] [email protected] 6 points 3 months ago

What about what I do: Just add . ~/.bash_BeigeAgenda at the bottom of one of the files, for all my own crap.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 3 months ago

I just link one to the other and make sure it's idempotent.