Where is .bash_profile?

up vote 16 down vote favorite	I want to put new aliases to my .bash_profile file, but I cannot find this file. Where is it supposed to be? bash shareimprove this question edited Dec 29 '13 at 1:43 minerz029 9,33452662 asked Mar 6 '11 at 11:40 Shira 144159
	1   The title should probably read .bash_profile with the dot. –  H2ONaCl Dec 11 '12 at 8:39 add a comment

4 Answers

active oldest votes

up vote 11 down vote accepted

It's a hidden file, located in your home folder: ~/.bash_profile (the ~ expands to your home directory. If your username is user, the result would be: /home/user/.bash_profile). Since it's an hidden file, you have to make it visible. To do it in Nautilus go to the "View" menu and check "Show hidden files" (or press the shortcut Ctrl + H). If you are using Kubuntu with Dolphin, you have to press Ctrl + . to toggle the visibility of files. shareimprove this answer edited Dec 29 '13 at 1:28 Seth♦ 15.7k1665108 answered Mar 6 '11 at 11:45 Lekensteyn 61.8k22176257

2   The Keys Ctrl-H toggles the show/hide hidden files also. –  Ice Mar 6 '11 at 17:15 sweet didn't know about that ctrl+H –  schwiz Mar 6 '11 at 23:58 add a comment

up vote 5 down vote

~/.bash_profile is not the right place to put aliases and functions. They should go in ~/.bashrc. See http://mywiki.wooledge.org/DotFiles for an explanation.