Chapter 8. Configuring Your UNIX Environment

Chapter contents

• Understanding your UNIX environment

• Discovering your current environment variables

• Adding or changing environment variables

• Looking at your bash configuration files

• Changing your bash path

• Changing your bash prompt

• Looking at your ksh configuration files

• Changing your ksh path

• Changing your ksh prompt

• Looking at your csh configuration files

• Changing your csh path

• Changing your csh prompt

• Setting aliases

Back in Chapter 3, we introduced you to UNIX shells—what they are and what you can do with them. In this chapter, we'll take you a bit further and look at configuring your environment using the bash, csh, and ksh shells. By configuring your environment (through changing environment variables), you can make the UNIX system adapt to your needs, rather than adapting to an existing environment that may not work for you.

These configuration tips differ (slightly) for different shells, so make sure you're following along with the instructions appropriate for the shell you use.