Question

What does .bashrc file in unix/linux do ?

what steps should i take inorder to run some commands automatically everytime i open my terminal??

Answer 1

Read this:
http://linux.die.net/man/1/bash

It's for shell commands.

Answer 2

It's a bash file, kinda like how Windows uses bash files.

Answer 3

It controls the behavior of the bash shell by setting up environment variables, prompt, and shell procedures.

For some more detail try this: http://tldp.org/LDP/abs/html/sample-bashrc.html

Answer 4

When you login, if your login shell is BASH, your environment is set to the values in /etc/bashrc. ~/.bashrc is read afterwards allowing the user to customize their environment and override settings that /etc/bashrc made.

Answer 5

so i just got to ~/.bashrc
edit it by writing the commands in it like setting up alias and all, and i am done ?

Answer 6

I'm late to the game but...

Basically any command that would work in bash can be put in the .bashrc file and it would be run when bash starts.

Answer 7

Yes, you can set up aliases, change your prompts, pretty much anything you want. Of course, with this freedom, you can goof things up pretty good too.