.cshrc not working...

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Level 1

111 points

.cshrc not working...

I'm trying to put my .cshrc file on a laptop running 10.3.9 and it doesn't seem to want to let me for some odd reason. I've done this on other machines and it works great. OK... I'm reading now that I'm supposed to be using a .tcshrc file but it has always worked on other macs!?

Anyway when I open a terminal after putting this file in my home directory it just ignores it. As a debug step... possibly related.... if I try to type:
alias ls "ls -a" in the terminal it says:
-bash: alias: ls: not found
-bash: alias: ls -a: not found

Why won't this work? I know I've used a .cshrc in this OS before on another machine...

Lombard 333MHz, Mac OS X (10.3.9), 383M

Posted on Mar 14, 2007 3:01 PM

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Answer 1

Zerwas

Level 4

1,154 points

Mar 14, 2007 3:21 PM in response to jarmeeder18

You have typed the syntax for the tcsh under the bash shell. This not going. Use for the bash these: alias ls="ls -a" and for the tcsh alias ls "ls -a".

And the .cshrc is for the tcsh shell. For the bash shell, you need the .bashrc.

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Answer 2

Mar 14, 2007 6:31 PM in response to jarmeeder18

The default for a new system installation is the bash shell. You can change it back to the c shell by using NetInfo Manager. It is in the Applications/Utilities directory. As I recall you select users then your userid. You will have to unlock it to change the shell. Remember to lock it after you change the shell to csh. If the terminal is open quit & open a new terminal window. Check the terminal's windows settings & it should be using csh.

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Answer 3

Mar 14, 2007 7:49 PM in response to Stanley Williams

Or if you're really lazy, like me. And you use either the flat files, in this case /etc/passwd, or the local netinfo db. Then you can use:

chsh -s csh andya

Andy

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Answer 4

jarmeeder18 Author

Level 1

111 points

Mar 15, 2007 3:30 AM in response to Stanley Williams

This strikes me as odd... I've got two other systems where tcsh is the default... OK, one of them was copied from the other, but I don't remember messing around with it. Was tcsh the default on 10.2? That would explain it because that's where I started and none the installs were clean starts.

Anyway I changed my shell to tcsh and it works the way I want, no sense having two shells in one house 🙂 Why doesn't it say ".cshrc sucessful" like my other machines do?

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Answer 5

jarmeeder18 Author

Level 1

111 points

Mar 15, 2007 3:37 AM in response to Nils C. Anderson

ooooo... the UNIX center of my brain sets off warning bells with using the passwd file to change shells. I didn't know I had warning bells there but it just strikes me as something that could bite me later on...

As far as the netinfo db... I don't know enough about how to do that... other than maybe to use NetInfo Manager like I just did. Plenty scary inside here for me.

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