ubuntu doesn't seem to be picking up .bash_profile

Question

I added some settings to .bash_profile and closing/opening terminal doesn't seem to have the path's I added there i.e. doing echo $BLAH results in a empty line.

(running the latest version of ubuntu)

do I use .profile instead?

Answer 1

You might have to add that in the .profile file in your home directory instead of .bash_profile

Once you do that, you will have to either log in again or do this in your terminal:

$> source .profile

Answer 2

~/.bash_profile is only sourced on login shells. You may need to alter your ~/.bashrc to get your configuration sourced on other interactive shells.

See the bash man page for more information.