The file .login is read only once when you login to the system. However, before bringing up the default configuration, the system checks your home directory for any additional configuration files you might have created and executes the customizing commands in those files as well.
Users login either directly or remotely.
Thus, there are two kinds of sessions, each created by a different sequence of events. The direct-access X Windows session. Users who login directly to the network use a campus workstation running X Windows. This session supports a window manager, simultaneous activity in multiple windows, and many sophisticated support and applications programs. This terminal session is generally not able to run X Windows.