This has apparently been an issue for some considerable time. I've just now run into it while delving into a failure in pexpect's test-suite (during work on LP: #1987420), which apparently assumes that using --rcfile will suppress both the user *and* the system's bashrc (as the man-page documents).
However, I'm not entirely convinced this is a bug in bash, so much as its man-page. Reading the original code (shell.c in bash) its intent is fairly clear: execute the system-wide bashrc in all interactive shells, but permit the user's bashrc to be overridden by --rcfile. It's worth noting that the original (upstream, not Debian) man-page makes no mention of the system-wide bashrc because it's an option that's not activated by default. The Debian packaging enables the system-wide bashrc (SYS_BASHRC in d/p/deb-bash-config.diff) and then patches the man-page to mention it (d/p/man-bashrc.diff). In other words, I suspect this is a documentation bug rather than a behavioural bug (i.e. the man- page is wrong, not the behaviour). -- You received this bug notification because you are a member of Ubuntu Touch seeded packages, which is subscribed to bash in Ubuntu. https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/1097467 Title: bash does not fulfill --rcfile option properly Status in bash package in Ubuntu: Confirmed Bug description: I am starting a bash shell using $ bash --noprofile --rcfile my-custom-bash-rc-file Due to the --rcflag, the newly started bash should *not* execute commands from /etc/bash.bashrc. That is at least how I interpret `man bash`: --rcfile file Execute commands from file instead of the system wide initialization file /etc/bash.bashrc and the standard personal initial‐ ization file ~/.bashrc if the shell is interactive (see INVOCATION below). However, it seems that the commands in /etc/bash.bashrc are in fact executed. To see/reproduce/diagnose this, on Ubuntu I believe one can just invoke bash like this (as the regular user): $ touch testrc $ env -i bash --noprofile --rcfile testrc The expected result would be that nothing special is printed on the terminal. However, there is an error message, which is printed from /etc/bash.bashrc. The "env -i" causes $HOME to not be set in the invoked shell, which in turn triggers the error. The error message is: > To run a command as administrator (user "root"), use "sudo <command>". > See "man sudo_root" for details. Another way to see this -- without the "env -i" -- is to add a command to /etc/bash.bashrc, such as echo HELLO THERE To trigger the bug(?), one can then just do $ touch testrc $ bash --noprofile --rcfile testrc The expected result would be that nothing special is shown in the terminal. However, it turns out that the string HELLO THERE is printed. To manage notifications about this bug go to: https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/bash/+bug/1097467/+subscriptions -- Mailing list: https://launchpad.net/~touch-packages Post to : touch-packages@lists.launchpad.net Unsubscribe : https://launchpad.net/~touch-packages More help : https://help.launchpad.net/ListHelp
