/etc/profile and ${HOME}/.profile not read for non root

[MickPF]

Hello,

yesterday I've installed Debian 9.4 (with MATE desktop) from DVD's and created during the GUI mode installation process an user with bash as the login shell.
When I login as this user, neither '/etc/profile' (with files from '/etc/profile.d') nor '${HOME}/.profile' are read/executed! But it reads '/etc/bash.bashrc' and '${HOME}/.bashrc'.

When I login as root, all these files are read.

I have not made any changes to these system files so far.

Thanks in advance,
Michael

[dilberts_left_nut]

The login shell starts and reads its shell-specific configuration files.

bash first reads /etc/profile to get values that are defined for all users. After reading that file, it looks for ~/.bash_profile, ~/.bash_login, and ~/.profile, in that order, and reads and executes commands from the first of these files that exists and is readable. See DotFiles for full details.

[debiman]

created (...) user with bash as the login shell.

how exactly did you do that?
it sounds like you didn't just go with defaults, but made some conscious choices, but then bash is the default login shell anyhow, no?

When I login as this user, neither '/etc/profile' (with files from '/etc/profile.d') nor '${HOME}/.profile' are read/executed!

highly unlikely.
how did you form that opinion?

[MickPF]

Hello debiman,

during the installation process I was asked for user data to be created. This process creates this user with "bash" as the login shell.

It's very unlikely to find intelligent life on Earth also, you will find it definitely not everywhere but here and there.

I set and exported some different environment variables in '/etc/profile', in '/etc/profile.d/my_env.sh', in '${HOME}/.profile', in '/etc/bash.bashrc' and in '${HOME}/.bashrc'.
Asking for their values in a terminal window (SHELL=/bin/bash) displays only vars set in '/etc/bash.bashrc' and in '${HOME}/.bashrc'.
Values of vars set in '/etc/profile', in '/etc/profile.d/my_env.sh' and in '${HOME}/.profile' are empty.

[debiman]

quoted from https://wiki.debian.org/DotFiles :

Now, since bash is being invoked as a login shell (with name "-bash", a special ancient hack), it reads /etc/profile first. Then it looks in your home directory for .bash_profile, and if it finds it, it reads that. If it doesn't find .bash_profile, it looks for .bash_login, and if it doesn't find that, it looks for .profile (the standard Bourne/Korn shell configuration file). Otherwise, it stops looking for dot files, and gives you a prompt.

of course you should read the whole article.

[Head_on_a_Stick]

tl;dr: for a display manager login, add your lines to ~/.xsessionrc instead of ~/.profile.