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Date: Thu, 7 Jul 2005 20:12:17 -0400 (EDT)
From: Igor Pechtchanski <pechtcha AT cs DOT nyu DOT edu>
Reply-To: cygwin AT cygwin DOT com
To: Rex Eastbourne <rex DOT eastbourne AT gmail DOT com>
cc: cygwin AT cygwin DOT com
Subject: Re: The perils of editing .bashrc (Attn: base-files maintainer)
In-Reply-To: <81cec73805070716387b6acd83@mail.gmail.com>
Message-ID: <Pine.GSO.4.61.0507072005420.29317@slinky.cs.nyu.edu>
References: <81cec73805070716387b6acd83 AT mail DOT gmail DOT com>
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: TEXT/PLAIN; charset=US-ASCII

On Thu, 7 Jul 2005, Rex Eastbourne wrote:

> Is it advisable to edit one's .bashrc? I'd like to put in a bunch of
> customizations, aliases, etc., but I'm intimidated by the message
> saying that my .bashrc will not be updated by setup.exe if I modify
> it. Does this mean that I'll have to put in changes for new programs
> manually? If so, how can I customize my shell without losing
> setup.exe's automation?

What Andrew said.  Setup will never touch the .bashrc in your home
directory, whether you modify it or now.  The severe-sounding warning you
saw really refers to /etc/skel/.bashrc (copied to every new user's
directory, which is apparently what the base-files maintainer didn't count
on).  So yes, do go ahead and customize it -- that's what it's there for.

To the base-files maintainer: John, could you maybe tone the warning down
a bit?  Perhaps simply putting the following would be enough (and
certainly wouldn't sound as scary to new users):

"To pick up the latest recommended .bashrc content, look in
/etc/defaults/etc/skel/.bashrc.  Modifying /etc/skel/.bashrc directly
would prevent setup from updating it".

I would even borrow Andrew's phrase and say "This is the default .bashrc
file.  By all means, customize it to create a shell environment to your
liking." somewhere in the top comments.

HTH,
	Igor
-- 
				http://cs.nyu.edu/~pechtcha/
      |\      _,,,---,,_		pechtcha AT cs DOT nyu DOT edu
ZZZzz /,`.-'`'    -.  ;-;;,_		igor AT watson DOT ibm DOT com
     |,4-  ) )-,_. ,\ (  `'-'		Igor Pechtchanski, Ph.D.
    '---''(_/--'  `-'\_) fL	a.k.a JaguaR-R-R-r-r-r-.-.-.  Meow!

"The Sun will pass between the Earth and the Moon tonight for a total
Lunar eclipse..." -- WCBS Radio Newsbrief, Oct 27 2004, 12:01 pm EDT

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