Gnome applications and .bash_profile

[Allen Halsey]

Jonathan Ryshpan <jonrysh <at> pacbell.net> writes:
>
> It looks like environment variables set in .bash_profile are visible 
> to applications started in gnome but not via a shell.  For example
> evolution knows when I modify LC_COLLATE.  
> 
> But how?  Here's the invocation chain from login down to evolution -- no
> shells here.
> 
>  1710 ?        Ss     0:00 /usr/sbin/gdm-binary -nodaemon
> 14284 ?        S      0:00  \_ /usr/libexec/gdm-simple-slave --display-id
/org/gnome/Disp
> 14285 tty7     Ss+    0:43      \_ /usr/bin/Xorg :0 -br -verbose -auth
/var/run/gdm/auth-
> 14366 ?        S      0:00      \_ pam: gdm-password
> 14413 ?        Ssl    0:00          \_ gnome-session
> 14523 ?        Sl     0:00              \_ metacity
> 14536 ?        S      0:00              \_ gnome-panel
> 14537 ?        S      0:00              \_ nautilus
> 14542 ?        S      0:00              \_ /bin/sh
/usr/lib64/firefox-3.5.4/run-mozilla.s
> 14651 ?        Sl     0:41              |   \_ /usr/lib64/firefox-3.5.4/firefox
> 14543 ?        Sl     0:17              \_ evolution
> 
> What am I missing?
> 
> Thanks - jon
> 


See this excellent post by Chris Tyler where he explores the sequence of events
leading to execution of .bash_profile:

http://dailypackage.fedorabook.com/index.php?/archives/122-Wednesday-Why-Logins-and-Sessions.html

The critical line is in the /etc/X11/xdm/Xsession script:

  exec -l $SHELL -c "$SSH_AGENT $DBUS_LAUNCH gnome-session"

where SHELL is bash.

Allen