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whats a profile do?
Authored by: dlandrith on Jan 04, '02 09:55:02PM
The /etc/profile or ~/.profile file are read whenever a shell is invoked. It is typically used to set environmental variables like PATH (where to look for commands), MANPATH (where to look for man pages), PS1 (main prompt), PAGER (what to use for man), and any other variables that you may want to add that are specific to your environment (i.e., CLASSPATH, LDFLAGS, EDITOR, HSTSIZE, and CFLAGS are examples of regular, but less common environmental variables). If you are using tcsh (the default shell for OS X), try typing man tcsh. You will get a 40 to 60 page document that will explain all this and more. If you don't mind staying up all night, it's not a bad read.

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