Which of the following files is not read directly by a Bash login shell?

Question

Options

• A~/.bashrc
• B~/.bash_profile
• C~/.bash_login
• D~/.profile
• E/etc/profile

• A
  78% (53)
• B
  1% (1)
• C
  4% (3)
• D
  13% (9)
• E
  3% (2)

Explanation

~/.bashrc is skipped by Bash login shells - it is sourced only by interactive non-login shells (e.g., a new terminal tab that inherits an existing session). The distractor choices are all legitimately read by a login shell: /etc/profile (E) is read first as the system-wide config, then Bash looks for and reads the first of ~/.bash_profile (B), ~/.bash_login (C), or ~/.profile (D) that it finds - so all four distractors are genuine login-shell startup files. Note that many distributions work around this by having ~/.bash_profile explicitly source ~/.bashrc, which is why it feels like login shells read it - but that's indirect, not direct.

Memory tip: Think of the "rc" suffix as "run commands for interactive shells" - ~/.bashrc is the interactive shell's file, while ~/.bash_profile owns the login shell. Login = profile; interactive = rc.

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