bashrc not loading until run bash command

Question

I am running freshly installed Arch Linux. When I log into a user (running bash) and try to use an alias from .bashrc, it gives me the \'command not found\' error. But, if I ree

Answer 1

Have you looked at your ~/.profile, ~/.bash_login and ~/.bash_profile files?

Answer 2

Read the INVOCATION section from "bash(1)" for full details (that's the man page for bash; use man bash). Your first shell upon logging in is a "login shell", which means that the .bashrc file is not sourced. Your second invocation creates an interactive shell, where .bashrc is sourced.

If you always want the content of your .bashrc file processed, you can add the following lines to your .bash_profile file, creating that file if it does not already exist:

if [ -f ~/.bashrc ]; then
    . ~/.bashrc
fi

Per its man page, bash "[...] looks for ~/.bash_profile, ~/.bash_login, and ~/.profile, in that order, and reads and executes commands from the first one that exists and is readable." Conventions and policies of your local system will determine which, if any, of these files already exist.

A word of caution: be aware that creating a new .bash_profile in your home directory could have the unintended side-effect of preventing the reading and executing of commands in a .bash_login or .profile file already present, changing further the behavior of subsequent logins.