Unix / Linux: Initialize Dot Files Without Restarting The Current Shell Session

I

‘m a new Linux, OS X or Unix-like system users. I’m using bash shell. I made changes to my $HOME/.profile ($HOME/.bash_profile) file. How can I restart my session without doing logout and login again?

 

You can always initialize your shell startup files without restarting a Unix or Linux based session. The command and input file name depends upon your shell you are using. You can use the following command to find out your shell name:

echo $SHELL

Sample outputs:

/bin/csh

Restart a Unix/Linux session based on ksh or bash shell

The syntax is:

. $HOME/.profile

. $HOME/.bash_profile

 

or Use source command ##

source $HOME/.profile

source $HOME/.bash_profile

The source or . is a shell builtin commands to read and execute commands from given FILENAM. If you have created a $HOME/.bashrc file, type:

. $HOME/.bashrc

 

or

 

source $HOME/.bashrc

Restart a Unix/Linux session based on csh or tcsh shell

The syntax is as follows for csh/tcsh based shell:

source .cshrc

source .login

For more info see your shell man pages – bash(1),tcsh(1),ksh(1) or type the following command:

help source

help .

 

 

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