Problem Sourcing File from ~/.profile

Question

Using Ubuntu 9.10 and BASH_VERSION='4.0.33(1)-release'...

I have a bash function that I want to be able to call from my shell. I asked a different question about it here:

Ubuntu Login Screen Reloads

So now that I've fixed the syntax issues, the new problem is that the function is not being exported properly to my shell environment. So I tried moving the file from /etc/profile.d to my home dir and now I am just trying to source it from ~/.profile, like this:

. $HOME/.p4c

This doesn't have any effect - the function is still not exported. How I am checking this:

• When I open a terminal and run set|grep p4c I don't see this function defined.
• If I then type . $HOME/.p4c on the command line, and then run set|grep p4c again, now I can see the function exported properly to my environment.

I know that my ~/.profile is being read, because immediately above . $HOME/.p4c I am exporting an env variable and it is defined in my environment when I first open a terminal. Ugh...

---

Here is the contents of $HOME/.p4c:

# p4c() function setup params
p4_HOST=`hostname | awk -F . '{print $1}'`

# function for setting the P4CLIENT variable based on the first non-option
# argument provided
p4c() {
    HELP_MODE=''
    VERBOSE_MODE=''
    DESC_MODE=''
    SHORT_MODE=''
    while getopts ":hdsv" option
    do
        case $option in
            h) echo "p4c provides information about perforce clients."
               echo "Recognized arguments:"
               echo "    -h     help (this message)"
               echo "    -d     descriptions (prints client descriptions - usefu                                                            l, but slightly slower)"
               echo "    -v     verbose (print unreasonable amounts of debugging                                                             info"
               echo
               # About to exit - reset OPTIND or we'll be in trouble later.
               OPTIND=1
               # Abort
               return
               ;;
            v) VERBOSE_MODE='verbose';;
            d) DESC_MODE='descriptions';;
            s) SHORT_MODE='short';;
            *) echo "Unknown option '$OPTARG'!  Specify -h for help..."
               # About to exit - reset OPTIND or we'll be in trouble later.
               OPTIND=1
               # Abort
               return
               ;;
        esac
    done

    # Set argument pointer to first non-option argument
    shift $(($OPTIND - 1))

    # Done with OPTIND - better reset it before something bad happens...
    OPTIND=1

    PROJECT=$1;
    if [ $VERBOSE_MODE ]
    then
        echo "PROJECT: $PROJECT"
    fi

    # Need to check/set p4_USER every time to allow changes between invocations
    if [ -z "$p4c_USER" ]
    then
        p4_USER=`echo $P4USER`
        if [ -z "$p4_USER" ]
        then
            p4_USER=`id -nu`
        fi
    else
        p4_USER=$p4c_USER
    fi
    if [ $VERBOSE_MODE ]
    then
        echo "p4_USER: $p4_USER"
    fi


    if [ -n "$PROJECT" ]
    then
        # provided a non empty string project name
        p4_CLIENT=$p4_HOST-$p4_USER-$PROJECT
        if [ $VERBOSE_MODE ]
        then
            echo "p4_CLIENT: $p4_CLIENT"
        fi

        # check client to see if it exists
        p4_GREP_RESULT=`p4 clients | grep "$p4_CLIENT"`
        if [ -z "$p4_GREP_RESULT" ]
        then
            echo "NOTE: P4 client \"$p4_CLIENT\" does not exist on server."
            echo "Setting P4CLIENT anyway so that client 

Answer 1

Have you tried sourcing it in ~/.bashrc instead of ~/.profile?

From the Bash man page:

       When  an  interactive  shell that is not a login shell is started, bash
       reads and executes commands from  /etc/bash.bashrc  and  ~/.bashrc,  if
       these  files  exist.  This may be inhibited by using the --norc option.
       The --rcfile file option will force bash to read and  execute  commands
       from file instead of /etc/bash.bashrc and ~/.bashrc.

Which would be the case when you run a terminal in an X-window session, for example.