How to reload .bash_profile from the command line

Simply type source ~/.bash_profile.

Alternatively, if you like saving keystrokes, you can type . ~/.bash_profile.

. ~/.bash_profile

Just make sure you don't have any dependencies on the current state in there.

Simply type:

. ~/.bash_profile

However, if you want to source it to run automatically when terminal starts instead of running it every time you open terminal, you might add . ~/.bash_profile to ~/.bashrc file.

Note:

When you open a terminal, the terminal starts bash in (non-login) interactive mode, which means it will source ~/.bashrc.

~/.bash_profile is only sourced by bash when started in interactive login mode. That is typically only when you login at the console (Ctrl+Alt+F1..F6), or connecting via ssh.

If you don't mind losing the history of your current shell terminal, you could also do

bash -l

That would fork your shell and open up another child process of bash. The -l parameter tells Bash to run as a login shell. This is required, because .bash_profile will not run as a non-login shell. For more information about this, read here.

If you want to completely replace the current shell, you can also do:

exec bash -l

The above will not fork your current shell, but replace it completely, so when you type exit it will completely terminate, rather than dropping you to the previous shell.

You can also use this command to reload the ~/.bash_profile for that user. Make sure to use the dash.

su - username

I like the fact that after you have just edited the file, all you need to do is type:

. !$

This sources the file you had just edited in history. See What is bang dollar in bash.

Save the .bash_profile file Go to the user's home directory by typing cd Reload the profile with . .bash_profile

You just need to type . ~/.bash_profile.

Refer to What does 'source' do?.

Add alias bashs="source ~/.bash_profile" into your Bash file.

So you can call bashs the next time.

Use

alias reload!=". ~/.bash_profile"

Or if want to add logs via functions:

function reload! () {
    echo "Reloading bash profile...!"
    source ~/.bash_profile
    echo "Reloaded!!!"
}

If the .bash_profile file does not exist, you can try to run the following command:

. ~/.bashrc

or

source ~/.bashrc

instead of .bash_profile.

You can find more information about bashrc.

While using source ~/.bash_profile or the previous answers works, one thing to mention is that this only reloads your Bash profile in the current tab or session you are viewing. If you wish to reload your bash profile on every tab/shell, you need to enter this command manually in each of them.

If you use iTerm, you can use CMD⌘ + Shift + I to enter a command into all current tabs. For terminal it may be useful to reference this issue;

I use Debian and I can simply type exec bash to achieve this. I can't say if it will work on all other distributions.

I am running macOS v10.12 (Sierra) and was working on this for a while (trying all recommended solutions). I became confounded, so I eventually tried restarting my computer! It worked.

My conclusion is that sometimes a hard reset is necessary.

Simply re-sourcing the file won't "reload" in the sense that something is first unloaded, then loaded again. If that is what you want you can do:

hash -r && _SHOW_MESSAGES=1 exec -a -bash bash