Why are my aliases (set via environment-modules) not loaded in terminal or konsole?

Question

This problem drives me nuts. It is working in all my RHEL systems, but on Ubuntu20LTS I cannot get it to work properly.

The configuration:

The environment-modules are loaded via a script in "/etc/profile.d" for all users when they open a terminal/konsole. The module "aliases" defines aliases for all our projects and all users shall see those aliases in their environment. As I learned, the terminal/konsole will open "interactive non-login-shells". I our configuration, the ".bashrc" is sourced when the terminal/konsole is opened.

What is expected and working on RHEL, but not working on Ubuntu20LTS:

Open terminal or konsole --> modules are loaded (via script in “etc/profile.d/…”) --> “alias” shows all defined aliases from module “aliases” (see the ".bashrc" content at the end of this post) :

I am .bashrc and was loaded!
[INFO:] $MODULEPATH=/icd/cfg/modules:
Currently Loaded Modulefiles:

aliases   2) common   3) aliases_ue

[userXY@host:~]
alias
alias ATIC183='cd $ICD_PROJ/ATIC183; source $ICD_CFG/env/proj_setup/start_proj.sh'
alias FFT='cd $ICD_PROJ/monarch; source $ICD_CFG/env/proj_setup/start_proj.sh'
alias HXLR0='cd $ICD_PROJ/HXLR0; source $ICD_CFG/env/proj_setup/start_proj.sh'

What is experienced on Ubuntu20LTS:

Open terminal --> modules are loaded --> “alias” does NOT show the defined aliases, only the one definition from ".bashrc":

I am .bashrc and was loaded!
[INFO:] $MODULEPATH=/icd/cfg/modules:
Currently Loaded Modulefiles:

aliases   2) common   3) aliases_ue

[userXY@host:~]
alias
alias ll='ls -al'

What has been tested in addition and does NOT work:

Open terminal --> reload module via “module load aliases” --> “alias” does NOT show the defined aliases

Open terminal --> “su userXY” --> modules are loaded --> “alias” does NOT show the defined aliases

# su userXY
Password: 
I am .bashrc and was loaded!
[INFO:] $MODULEPATH=/icd/cfg/modules:
Currently Loaded Modulefiles:

aliases   2) common   3) aliases_ue

[userXY@host:~]
alias
alias ll='ls -al'

Open terminal --> “bash -l” --> modules are loaded --> “alias” does NOT show the defined aliases, but other aliases are loaded in addition

Open terminal --> “su userXY” --> modules are loaded --> “bash -l” --> alias” does NOT show the defined aliases, but other aliases are loaded in addition

# bash -l
I am .bashrc and was loaded!
[INFO:] $MODULEPATH=/icd/cfg/modules:
Currently Loaded Modulefiles:

aliases   2) common   3) aliases_ue

[userXY@host:~]
alias
alias ll='ls -al'
alias pat='puppet agent -t'
alias su2='sudo su -'

Open terminal --> “sudo su userXY” --> NO modules are loaded

# sudo su userXY
ERROR: No module path defined
ERROR: No module path defined
I am .bashrc and was loaded!
[INFO:] $MODULEPATH=
No Modulefiles Currently Loaded.

What is working to get the aliases:

Open terminal --> “sudo su userXY” --> NO modules are loaded --> “bash -l” --> alias shows all defined aliases

Open terminal --> ssh localhost --> modules are loaded --> alias shows all defined aliases

# sudo su userXY
ERROR: No module path defined
ERROR: No module path defined
I am .bashrc and was loaded!
[INFO:] $MODULEPATH=
No Modulefiles Currently Loaded.
[userXY@host:~]
bash -l
I am .bashrc and was loaded!
[INFO:] $MODULEPATH=/icd/cfg/modules:
Currently Loaded Modulefiles:

aliases   2) common   3) aliases_ue

[userXY@host:~]
alias
alias ATIC183='cd $ICD_PROJ/ATIC183; source $ICD_CFG/env/proj_setup/start_proj.sh'
alias FFT='cd $ICD_PROJ/monarch; source $ICD_CFG/env/proj_setup/start_proj.sh'
alias HXLR0='cd $ICD_PROJ/HXLR0; source $ICD_CFG/env/proj_setup/start_proj.sh'

Its seems it has to do with the login and non-login shells. But I cannot find out why the aliases (which are defined by the loaded modules) are overwritten/deleted in the one scenario, but are available in the other scenario.

Those are config-files in my $HOME:

.bash_aliases --> not existent

.profile --> not existent

.login --> not existent

.cshrc --> not existent

.bashrc

#cat .bashrc
case "$0" in
          -sh|sh|/sh) modules_shell=sh ;;
       -ksh|ksh|/ksh) modules_shell=ksh ;;
       -zsh|zsh|/zsh) modules_shell=zsh ;;
    -bash|bash|/bash) modules_shell=bash ;;
esac
module() { eval /usr/bin/tclsh8.6 /usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/modulecmd.tcl $modules_shell $*; }
.bashrc
Source global definitions
if [ -f /etc/bashrc ]; then
        . /etc/bashrc
fi
if [ -f ~/.bash_aliases ]; then
        . ~/.bash_aliases
fi
Uncomment the following line if you don't like systemctl's auto-paging feature:
export SYSTEMD_PAGER=
User specific aliases and functions
export SVN_EDITOR=vi
#colorized shell prompt
export PS1='[[\033[1;31m]\u@[\033[1;34m]\h:[\033[0;32m]\w[\033[0m]]\n# '
load aliases
module load aliases_ue
#disable beep
xset b off
alias ll="ls -al"
echo "I am .bashrc and was loaded!"
echo -e "[INFO:] $MODULEPATH=$MODULEPATH\n"
module list

.bash_profile

# cat .bash_profile
# .bash_profile
Get the aliases and functions
if [ -f ~/.bashrc ]; then
        . ~/.bashrc
fi
User specific environment and startup programs
PATH=$PATH:$HOME/.local/bin:$HOME/bin
export PATH

.kshrc

# cat .kshrc 
# .kshrc
Source global definitions
if [ -f /etc/kshrc ]; then
        . /etc/kshrc
fi
use emacs editing mode by default
set -o emacs
User specific aliases and functions

Any hint is very much appreciated !

score 0 · Accepted Answer · answered Jan 29 '25 at 12:41

My issue is resolved by switching from "environment-modules" to the alternative "Lmod" modules implementation (which is the "modules" alternative I use on RHEL as well).

After purging "environment-modules" and installing "lmod" via apt, I followed this tutorial from the "Lmod" website: https://lmod.readthedocs.io/en/latest/030_installing.html#bash-under-ubuntu

It basically enables the interactive-non-login-shell (when opening a terminal/konsole) to load the *.sh files under "/etc/profile.d" by adding this to the "/etc/bash.bashrc":

if ! shopt -q login_shell; then
  if [ -d /etc/profile.d ]; then
    for i in /etc/profile.d/*.sh; do
      if [ -r $i ]; then
        . $i
      fi
    done
  fi
fi

With this setting, the modules and aliases are loaded directly when a terminal/konsole is opened.

score 0 · Answer 2 · answered May 01 '25 at 12:26

On Ubuntu and other Debian-like systems /etc/profile script is not taken into account by shell when it initializes in non-interactive mode. See https://askubuntu.com/a/247769 for a detailed overview of how bash initializes on such systems.

Once environment-modules is installed on your system, some extra steps should be performed to get the module shell function defined when bash shell is run in non-interactive mode.

Following code snippet has to be added to either your personal (~/.bashrc) or system-wide (/etc/bash.bashrc) bash initialization file:

# enable module command in non-interactive shells
if ! shopt -q login_shell; then
    . /usr/share/modules/init/bash
fi

You can refer to the Enable Modules in shells guidelines to setup module function in supported shells for their different execution modes (interactive or non-interactive).

Why are my aliases (set via environment-modules) not loaded in terminal or konsole?

alias

alias

alias

alias

bash -l

alias

.bashrc

Source global definitions

Uncomment the following line if you don't like systemctl's auto-paging feature:

export SYSTEMD_PAGER=

User specific aliases and functions

load aliases

Get the aliases and functions

User specific environment and startup programs

Source global definitions

use emacs editing mode by default

User specific aliases and functions

2 Answers2