Re: [vox-tech] bash environment variables (and KDE) resolved!

[Jonathan Stickel <jjstickel@sbcglobal.neMAPSt>]

Ken Bloom wrote:
> On 2004.04.30 15:11, Jonathan Stickel wrote:
>
> > Ken Bloom wrote:
> >
> > > On Fri, Apr 30, 2004 at 10:33:28AM -0700, Jonathan Stickel wrote:
> > >
> > > > There are still a couple things in linux that seem to be 
> > > > unnecessarily  convoluted and really bug me.  One is sound, which 
> > > > I've finally managed  to work around using alsa and dmix.
> > > >
> > > > The other is handling user-specified shell environment variables.  
> > > > I  use bash, and by trial and error I've found I can put what I want 
> > > > in . bashrc.  IIRC, I remember reading that this really isn't the 
> > > > place for  custom variables, but this is what has worked for me.  
> > > > Recently, I've  defined $TEXINPUTS, a path variable for tex/latex.  
> > > > When I run latex  from shell, it uses the path I've defined by 
> > > > $TEXINPUTS correctly.  However, if I start Emacs from KDE's kmenu, 
> > > > $TEXINPUTS is NOT read, and  thus running latex from within Emacs 
> > > > doesn't work like I expect.  It  turns out that KDE, when started 
> > > > through xdm/kdm, does not read .bashrc  at all  
> > > > (http://lists.debian.org/debian-kde/2002/debian-kde-200209/msg00083.html).  
> > > > However, .bashrc does get read when starting a shell from within KDE.
> > > >
> > > > So my question is:  what really is the correct place to put user- 
> > > > specific bash variables?  And, how do I make KDE read them when 
> > > > logging  in from kdm?
> > > Well, I use a .xsession script to log in from kdm (my default session
> > > is "Custom" which runs my .xsession). My .xsession uses bash as its
> > > interpreter, which sources .profile, and .profile in turn sources
> > > .bashrc, so everything defined in these files becomes available before
> > > my .xsession starts my window manager.
> > Could you post your Custom session and .xession files, or at least 
> > the  relevant parts?
> I don't know where this Custom session file lives
>
> [bloom@kabloom /usr/share/apps/kdm/sessions]$ cat ~/.xsession
> #!/bin/bash --login
<snip>

My kdm session files are in /etc/X11/Sessions.  In here there is a shell 
script called "kde-3.2.1" which is launched when I choose "kde-3.2.1" 
when logging in from kdm.  This script is just one line which calls the 
script /usr/kde/3.2/bin/startkde.  The top line of this script, by 
default, is

#!/bin/sh --login

Changing it to

#!/bin/bash --login
       ^^^^
has resolved my problem!  Now my custom environmental variables are read 
from my ~/.bash_profile or ~/.bashrc at login, and are available when 
launching programs from the kmenu.  Thanks to those who responded and 
gave clues how to fix this!

Jonathan
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