Difference between .bashrc and .bash_profile

Traditionally, when you log into a Unix system, the system would start one program for you. That program is a shell, i.e., a program designed to start other programs. It's a command line shell: you start another program by typing its name. The default shell, a Bourne shell, reads commands from when it is invoked as the login shell. Bash is a Bourne-like shell. It reads commands from when it is invoked as the login shell, and if that file doesn't exist¹, it tries reading instead. You can invoke …