Shell in Mac OS X

Table 7.2 Common Configuration Files

Shells and Configuration Files in Order of Execution. Remember that the ~ character is short hand for " your home directory. "
Shell	Name and Description
TCSH
/etc/csh.cshrc	Systemwide configuration file for the tcsh and csh shells. This is the first file that tcsh executes when it starts up (Figure 7.2).
/etc/csh.login	Systemwide configuration for tcsh and csh, executed only for interactive shells.
~/.tcshrc	The main personal configuration file for your tcsh shell. If tcsh doesn't find this, it looks for a .cshrc file.
~/.login	This file is executed after the .tcshrc file, but only if the shell is an interactive log-in shell. It won't be used if some other process is starting the shell.
~/.logout	Tcsh executes this file when you log out of an interactive shell.
BASH
/etc/profile	Systemwide configuration file for the bash and sh shells.
~/.bash_profile	The first personal configuration file that bash looks for.
~/.bashrc	This file is executed for interactive shells but not for your log-in shell (the shell that starts up when you open each Terminal window).
~/.bash_logout	Executed when you log out from a bash log-in shell.