Type of Shells
Remarks#
Login Shell
A login shell is one whose first character of argument zero is a -, or one started with the –login option. The Initialization is more comprehensive than in an normal interactive (sub) shell.
Interactive Shell
An interactive shell is one started without non-option arguments and without the -c option whose standard input and error are both connected to terminals (as determined by isatty(3)), or one started with the -i option. PS1 is set and $- includes i if bash is interactive, allowing a shell script or a startup file to test this state.
non-interactive Shell
A non-interactive Shell is a shell in which the user can not interact with the shell. As en example, a shell running a script is always a non-interactive shell. All the same, the script can still access its tty.
Configuring a login shell
On logging in:
If '/etc/profile' exists, then source it.
If '~/.bash_profile' exists, then source it,
else if '~/.bash_login' exists, then source it,
else if '~/.profile' exists, then source it. For non-login interactive shells
On starting up:
If `~/.bashrc' exists, then source it.For non-interactive shells
On starting up: If the environment variable ENV is non-null, expand the variable and source the file named by the value. If Bash is not started in Posix mode, it looks for BASH_ENV before ENV.
Introduction to dot files
Start an interactive shell
bashDetect type of shell
shopt -q login_shell && echo 'login' || echo 'not-login'