setting variables in ubuntu 7.10

[Matt Graham]

From: "Kristian Erik Hermansen" <kristian.hermansen at gmail.com>
> On Thu, Feb 21, 2008 at 10:10 PM, Bob Holtzman <holtzm at sonic.net> wrote:
>> I can use "export <server name> and run my
>> news reader immediately after with no problem. As soon as I exit the
>> reader (slrn) and close the xterm window the server name is lost.

>> In RH the variables are in ~/.bashrc but ubuntu doesn't have this file.
>> There is a ~/.profile file that appears to be the equivalent. Is this
>> typical of debian based distros?
> Just create it...
> http://www.tux.org/~mayer/linux/book/node217.html

.profile should be sourced by bash when it's invoked as a login shell.
.bashrc should be sourced by bash when it's invoked as a non-login shell.
In general, people want the same behavior in both login and non-login
bash, so often .profile is one line that just tests whether .bashrc
exists and sources it if it does.  I don't know why they did something
different in Ubuntu.  For info on what bash does at startup and how,
"man bash" and grep for INVOCATION.  HTH,