Reload bash's .profile without logging out and back in again

Question

Is it possible to coerce bash to reload the .profile file without logging out and back in again?

score 168 · Accepted Answer · edited Dec 16 '17 at 12:10

168

This should work for the current terminal:

. ~/.profile

. is a bash builtin and a synonym for source, see man bash:

. filename [arguments]
source filename [arguments]
Read and execute commands from filename in the current shell environment (…).

edited Dec 16 '17 at 12:10

dessert

answered Aug 29 '11 at 14:11

Lukas Stejskal

score 16 · Answer 2 · edited Dec 31 '14 at 21:58

16

If you don't want to start a new shell but execute the script in the current shell, you source it:

source script_name.sh

source = .

The Bash source built-in is a synonym for the Bourne shell . (dot) command.

edited Dec 31 '14 at 21:58

muru

answered Aug 29 '11 at 14:23

Amey Jah

2 Answers2