macOS Catalina 10.15(beta) - Why is ~/.bash_profile not sourced by my shell?

Apple has changed the default shell to zsh. Therefore you have to rename your configuration files. .bashrc is now .zshrc and .bash_profile is now .zprofile.


If you for some reason (as me) don't want to rename/move your ~/.bash_profile file you can do the next things:

  1. Create a new file ~/.zprofile
  2. Type there source ~/.bash_profile
  3. Save and close
  4. Run a new terminal session

I created a new file called

/usr/local/bin/mybash

which contains a wrapper script:

/usr/local/bin/bash --init-file $HOME/.bashrc

I installed this local/bin/bash from HomeBrew.

Full Sequence of Events

brew install bash
echo "/usr/local/bin/bash --init-file $HOME/.bashrc" > /usr/local/bin/mybash
chmod +x /usr/local/bin/mybash

Then I opened the settings for terminal.app [cmd-comma]. Under the General Tab, select the radio button for Command (complete path)

In the text box change the text from /bin/zsh/ to /usr/local/bin/bash.

Example of final format