How to set gnome-terminal to start bash as a login shell, doesn't read .bashrc

*bash started as an interactive login shell: reads ~/.profile 
*bash started as an interactive non-login shell: reads ~/.bashrc 


Read the bash manual about startup files for more details. Personally, I think that this behaviour is strange and I have not yet found a rationalization for this design decision. Some explanation for the terminology: an interactive shell is a shell with which you can interact, that means you can type commands in it. A non-interactive shell is a shell with which you cannot interact. Non-interactive shells are usually started to run shell scripts. A login shell is a shell which is started when you login to your system, or when you start bash using the --login option. A non-login shell is a shell which is started after the login process, and without the --login option. Configuring gnome-terminal to start bash as a login shell means it will start bash using the --login option. Most shells you see are interactive non-login shells. This is especially true if you are running a graphical shell like gnome, because then gnome is the login shell. Any bash session started inside gnome is a non-login shell (unles started using --login). If you want to see a real interactive login shell then go to a virtual console (using Ctrl+Alt+F1) and then log in using your username and password. That is a real interactive login bash shell. You can go back to the graphical shell using Ctrl+Alt+F7. Usually you want bash to always read ~/.bashrc in an interactive shell. Here is how I recommend to do that: Create a ~/.bash_profile file. If bash is started as a login shell it will first look for ~/.bash_profile before looking for ~/.profile. If bash finds ~/.bash_profile then it will not read ~/.profile. Put the following lines in ~/.bash_profile: [ -f "$HOME/.profile" ] && source "$HOME/.profile" [ -f "$HOME/.bashrc" ] && source "$HOME/.bashrc" Now if bash is started as an interactive login shell it will read the following files: ~/.bash_profile ~/.profile ~/.bashrc and if bash is started as an interactive non-login shell: ~/.bashrc You should put stuff which is bash specific in ~/.bashrc and stuff which is not bash specific in ~/.profile. For example PATH goes in ~/.profile and HISTCONTROL goes in ~/.bashrc. Note that ~/.profile is not bash specific. Other text based shells (for example sh or ksh) and graphical shells (gnome) also read ~/.profile. That is why you should not put bash specific stuff in ~/.profile.