Customizing bash 4.x

[slferris2@…]

I recently downloaded and installed bash 4 using MacPorts. However, I want to use the shell customizations I have long been using with bash 3 located in /etc/bashrc. Bash 4 doesn't seem to find this file, but otherwise seems to work normally. Is there some path or other variable I need to set to make this happen?

Thanks

[raimue@…]

bash first reads /etc/profile (which sources /etc/bashrc) and then ~/.bash_profile, but only if it is run as a login shell (called with argv[0] == "-bash" or explicitely requested by bash --login). Interactive shells only source ~/.bashrc automatically. See the section INVOCATION in the bash man page for more details.

This behavior did not change between bash 3 and 4. Probably bash isn't run as login shell any more in your case and therefore the file /etc/bashrc is not being read.