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In ~/.bash_profile I have :

if [ -f ~/.bashrc ]; then
    source ~/.bashrc
fi

In ~/.bashrc I have some aliases

When I load a new iTerm window, my aliases do not work. If I source ~/.bashrc they work. If I source ~.bash_profile they work.

Isn't at least one of these supposed to be sourced automatically?

What might be causing it not to work properly?

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3 Answers 3

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84

The answer is simple, almost evident in the question. Here's why:

The shell zsh is not bash, it is a different shell. zsh will not use the default files built for bash: .bashrc or .bash_profile. These two files are startup configuration files for bash. zsh has its own startup configuration files.

You can find out more about them here on the zsh intro page:

There are five startup files that zsh will read commands from:

$ZDOTDIR/.zshenv
$ZDOTDIR/.zprofile
$ZDOTDIR/.zshrc
$ZDOTDIR/.zlogin
$ZDOTDIR/.zlogout

You had mentioned your aliases don't work, to fix this, apply your aliases here like so:

~/.zshrc

alias sz='source ~/.zshrc'     # Easily source your ~/.zshrc file.
alias ls='pwd; ls --color'     # Alias 'ls' to: pwd + ls + color.
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5
  • 2
    Thank you. Note that ls --color gave me illegal option in both bash and zsh on OSX 10.10, but not on Linux -- I'll look into it. Cheers.
    – Bradley Flood
    Jul 10, 2015 at 2:18
  • 1
    I don't have a Mac to test on but I think this has to do with the ls implementation on OS X, I don't think it has the - -color argument. If I remember I'll look it up.
    – p̻̻̥r̥̻̥o̻j̤͛ec͔t̞dp
    Jul 10, 2015 at 2:25
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    "... zsh has its own startup configuration files." this is what he probably asks for huh? just say "dude, it is ~/.zshrc".
    – eyurdakul
    Oct 15, 2018 at 12:32
  • 1
    +1 great tips in the answer for macOS Catalina now using zsh officially. Thank you.
    – therobyouknow
    Nov 13, 2019 at 13:59
  • For macOS, use ls -G insted of ls --color
    – jonny
    Mar 10, 2021 at 9:35
39

If you are using zsh then to force source .bash_profile

in ~/.zshrc add the line below

source ~/.bash_profile

P.S - I havent investigated whether this can cause any problem.

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5
  • 3
    I guess this answer would be helpful after release of macOS 10.5 Catalina in order to port bash_profile from bash to zsh.
    – Oleksii Kyslytsyn
    Sep 29, 2019 at 12:23
  • 1
    Fast and effective!
    – Roberto Manfreda
    Oct 14, 2019 at 12:34
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    Note this is very bad idea if your .bash_profile calls source .bashrc. Then you'll have a zsh shell loading a bunch of bash code and probably do weird behavior.
    – cgnorthcutt
    Feb 19, 2020 at 23:33
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    @cgnorthcutt Why is loading bash code a problem? If it's just setting up some simple aliases, for example.
    – James Koss
    Mar 5, 2020 at 15:18
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    @JamesKoss Say the next day you install a program that modifies your .bashrc to loop over a bunch of other aliases to add. Oops... zsh and bash use different looping indices, and now your .zshrc is broken.
    – cgnorthcutt
    Mar 5, 2020 at 20:49
3

Copy the lines from ~/.bash_profile to ~/.zshrc

cat ~/.bash_profile >> ~/.zshrc

And open a new terminal tab/window or use source ~/.zshrc

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2
  • 1
    This deleted all my ~/.zshrc previous contents.
    – Gerard Reches
    Mar 28, 2020 at 22:21
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    @GerardReches Sorry for the mess. In my case, I didn't have ~/.zshrc so > will create and add the lines from ~/.bash_profile. you should have used >> update operator to append `~/.zshrc.
    – I Don't Exist
    Mar 30, 2020 at 7:14

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