Question

31

Cannot successfully source .bashrc from a shell script

rated 0 times [ 31] [ 0] / answers: 1 / hits: 123606 / 1 Year ago, sun, april 2, 2023, 3:36:20

Normally we can source ~/.bashrc file using this command

source ~/.bashrc

but if I write this in a shell script and execute it, nothing happens. Why?

Is there any way to do this?

My script:

#!/bin/bash

chmod a+x ~/.bashrc

source ~/.bashrc

Also tried . (dot) instead of source. Same result.

Answers

Only authorized users can answer the question. Please sign in first, or register a free account.

odyroc

Add To Favorites

Follow

Total Points: 324

Total Questions: 109

Total Answers: 103

Location: Belize

Member since Mon, Apr 17, 2023

1 Year ago

answered 1 Year ago emuralm · Accepted Answer

A shell script is run in its own shell instance. All the variable settings, function definitions and such only affect this instance (and maybe its children) but not the calling shell so they are gone after the script finished.

By contrast the source command doesn't start a new shell instance but uses the current shell so the changes remain.

If you want a shortcut to read your .bashrc use a shell function or an alias instead of a shell script, like

alias brc='source ~/.bashrc'