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In this lesson,

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we're going to learn how to configure the profile file

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in order to manage different account profiles.

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Now administrators have the task of managing various aspects

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of how different users can operate a system.

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This includes things like what software they can install,

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what they can update, what they can remove,

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which programs can run,

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the files they can read and write,

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and lots of other things.

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Typically, users have different personal habits

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that'll help them increase their productivity,

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so you want to be able to allow them

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to customize their profile for an optimal experience

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within their Linux environment according to their own needs.

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Now there are many files and directories

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from which you can create a standard profile

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for account users.

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And we're going to take a look at some of those in this lesson.

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Now the first one is the .bashrc file.

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This enables customization of the user's own environment.

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This file is unique to each user,

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so it can be configured

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to a user's own specific needs or preferences.

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A great example of the use

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of a .bashrc file is the use of aliases.

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Users can specify their own abbreviated commands

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without impacting the experience of anybody else

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who might log into that system.

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Another common configuration

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within the bashrc file is the creation

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of an environment variable.

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Now the bashrc file can also be configured

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to set default directories and file permissions for the user

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and to change the default command prompt

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to provide different information to the user.

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The next one we have is the .bash_profile file.

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And this is going to be used to provide the shell configuration

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for the initial login environment.

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Now this differs from the .bashrc file

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because it provides settings

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for all of the user's interactive shells,

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not just one user.

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So when you change the .bash_profile file,

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it's going to be read with the first login.

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Now after that, we're going to move over

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and start using the .bashrc file.

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So whatever you change in the .bash_profile file,

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think about that as part of the skeleton file

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when you create a new account.

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That's going to get added to that new account as well.

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An administrator might find it desirable

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to define some system-wide settings

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or to configure the initial settings for all the users.

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And this is a case where .bash_profile is great to use.

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There are several files and directories

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that enable the administrator to have flexibility

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to make a variety of configurations.

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And each of these can be customized by the user

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for their own needs as well later on.

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Again, this all starts out

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with that first file, .bash_profile.

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Now, when a new user account is created,

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the contents of the /etc/skel directory

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or the skeleton directory,

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are going to be automatically copied

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into the new user's home directory.

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When the user ADD command is run,

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the etc/skel directory is going to be copied

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into that new user's home directory,

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immediately giving them a baseline configuration

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that you have set as the administrator.

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Note, any files added to that /etc/skel directory

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after a new user account is created will not be copied

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to the home directories of existing users,

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only to new users moving forward.

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Because once that copy is made for a user,

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that becomes part of their profile

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and they get to customize it.

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You no longer are customizing it as a system administrator.

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Now there's going to be instances when an administrator

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also wants to apply certain settings to accounts

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for all the users on a system.

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When this happens, you should use /etc/profile.

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This file is going to be useful

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because it provides system-wide environmental variables

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that can be used for this purpose.

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Now, during the initial log in process for a user,

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the system actually reads the /etc/profile file first,

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and it does this for your Bash shell configurations.

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Then it goes to any user's specific Bash customizations

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that it's going to pull from the .profile file

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that's located inside the user's home directory.

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The .profile file will run each time a new shell is started,

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whereas the /etc/profile file is only run at login.

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This approach enables administrators

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to define global shell settings,

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but it still allows user's specific customizations

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to happen on the system.

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Another thing we need to talk about is /etc/profile.d.

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This is a directory that serves as a storage location

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for scripts that administrators may use

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to set additional system-wide variables.

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All the configurations that you want to apply

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to your system user's environments should be added

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inside of this directory.

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It's recommended that you set the environmental variables

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via scripts contained in the /etc/profile.d

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rather than editing the /etc/profile file directly.

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This gives you better control,

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and it is a safer and more secure way of doing things.

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Now the final thing we need

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to talk about is /etc/bashrc again.

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This file provides system-wide Bash settings.

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This is a little different

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than the /etc/profile we just talked about

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because /etc/profile is used for variables.

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But when you're using the /etc/bashrc,

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it follows the same principles

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of making these system-wide configuration changes,

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but it's applying specifically to the Bash settings

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for your command line environment.