Question

I recently added the following bash function definition to my /etc/profile in Ubuntu 11.04 (it’s a function to shortcut a CD command to a specific development directory):

################## JMOZTELEPORT BEGIN ##################

function JMozTeleport() {
  version=0.4.58
  pathtopythonpackages=`python -c "from site import getsitepackages; print getsitepackages()[0]"`
  pathtopythonteleport="$pathtopythonpackages/JMozTools-$version-py2.7.egg/JMozTools/JMozTeleport.py"

  # $1 is the command to run
  isversion=0
  ishelp=0
  if [[ "$1" == "-v"  || "$1" == "--version" ]]
  then
    isversion=1;
  fi
  if [[ "$1" == "-h"  || "$1" == "--help" ]]
  then
    ishelp=1;
  fi
  if [ -z $1 ]
  then
    python "$pathtopythonteleport" "-h"
  elif [ $1 == "version" ]
  then
    echo $version
  elif [ $isversion == 1 -o $ishelp == 1 ]
  then
    python "$pathtopythonteleport" "$@"
  else
    cd $(python "$pathtopythonteleport" "$@")
  fi
}
################### JMOZTELEPORT END ###################

Once I do this, though, (which works fine if I source /etc/profile from a terminal shell), I am unable to login to Gnome. It logs in ok, but then it immediately closes Gnome and brings me back to the login screen. If I remove this stuff from my /etc/profile, it again allows me to login fine.

I’m confused as to what is causing this to make gnome restart. Any ideas as to where the problem is?

Answer 1

/etc/profile is sourced by /bin/sh, something that probably happens during Gnome startup. It’s probably choking on the [[ ... ]] syntax, which is bash-specific. (/bin/sh may or may not be a symlink to /bin/bash, depending on the system).

Since your function appears to be bash-specific, you might consider putting it in /etc/bash.bashrc rather than /etc/profile, or perhaps even $HOME/.bashrc. (Do you need it in non-interactive shells?)