WilDoane/GitDataCollection — Issue #3: UMD does not recommend modifying users' .bashrc files
Author: briandk
Created: 2012-01-03 17:16:34+00:00
State: open

## Problem

If you open a users' [.bashrc file][1] on the remote computing cluster, you'll see this:

```shell
###########################################################################
#####
#####	PROJECT GLUE SHELL INITIALIZATION FILE
#####
###########################################################################
#####
#####	DO NOT EDIT THIS FILE!
#####
```

With this warning:

```shell
# WARNING: the systems staff will periodically make changes
# to this file, and any local changes you have made will be lost.
```

## Solution

The [file][1] has suggestions for how to (presumably safely) tweak `PATH` settings and the like:

```shell
# If you want to ADJUST the shell initialization sequence, create any
# of the following files (as appropriate) in your home directory, with
# to achieve the effect listed:
#
#	~/.bash_environment	- set, change, or unset environment variables
#	~/.bash_path	- set default search path (you can refer to
#	shell variable $glue_path, which lists the
#	glue default path, when you set path, e.g.,
#	PATH=".:$glue_path:~/foobar"
#	~/.bash_aliases	- setup, change or unset shell aliases
#	~/.bashrc.mine	- setup shell environment (set shell
#	variables, unset system defaults, etc...)
```

I'm not totally savvy yet, but it seems like we should be able to achieve our desired effect by creating/modifying a user's `.bash_aliases` file, `.bash_path` file, or their `.bashrc.mine` file, right?

[1]: https://github.com/WilDoane/GitDataCollection/blob/8c6e90df3ca050b850112198d920a4e21c9b823f/bashrc-UMD.sh