The same question I had in my mind when I first installed ubuntu 8.04.

Not to worry, if the user is not able find any .bash_profile in his/her home directory, look for .profile instead. This file is read by /etc/profile which in turn is read by /etc/bash.bashrc.

The user can either directly change /etc/profile also but it is not recommended generally. Grass is greener on the other side but please try to make your land fertile….

Users not comfortable with .profile can make a symbolic link using

ln -s .profile .bash_profile (assuming that the user is already in home directory)

Note: change in .bash_profile or .profile will change, only the command prompt. It may not cause the change in gnome-terminal. In that case, the user has to change the profile of gome-terminal.

How ??

open the terminal by Applications -> Accessories -> Terminal

go to Edit -> Current Profile -> Title and Command

Check the box “Run command as a login shell“.(by default it is not checked)

Close the terminal and start it again. changes made to .profile will be reflected in gnome-terminal as well.

One benefit I felt by making it as a login shell is that , the user does not have to logout of the system every time, he/she makes changes to .profile.Just close the gnome-terminal and open it again. changes will be reflected.