bash: permission denied: /home/user/.bashrc error [Solved]

# bash: permission denied: /home/user/.bashrc error

The error "bash: permission denied: /home/user/.bashrc" occurs when you try to execute the ~/.bashrc file from your terminal.

To resolve the issue, source the file by running source ~/.bashrc or edit it with your preferred text editor.

Directly running ~/.bashrc from your terminal causes the error.

shell

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# ⛔️ bash: permission denied: /home/user/.bashrc
~/.bashrc

bashrc permission denied

# Sourcing your `~/.bashrc` file

If you made changes to your ~/.bashrc file and you want to source it to update your current shell session, issue the following command.

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source ~/.bashrc

bashrc permission denied

The command above does the same as the following command.

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. ~/.bashrc

using dot bashrc command instead

Make sure the path to the file is specified correctly - ~/.bashrc.

The ~/.bashrc path translates to /home/YOUR_USER/.bashrc.

If you misspell the path, you might try to create a .bashrc file somewhere else in your home directory which could cause the error.

The source command will read and execute your ~/.bashrc file in the context of the current shell session.

Any changes you've made to the file will be applied to the current shell.

The source command is an alias for ..

You can also source your ~/.bash_profile file if you've made changes to it.

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# BASH
source ~/.bashrc

source ~/.bash_profile

If you use zsh, you would source the following 2 files instead.

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# ZSH
source ~/.zshrc

source ~/.zprofile

# Editing your `~/.bashrc` file

If you need to edit your ~/.bashrc file, issue the following command.

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sudo gedit ~/.bashrc

edit bashrc using gedit

The command uses the gedit text editor.

Alternatively, you can use nano.

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sudo nano ~/.bashrc

edit bashrc using nano

You can use the same approach to edit your other profile files.

For example, you can edit your ~/.bash_profile file by using one of the following commands.

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# with Gedit
sudo gedit ~/.bash_profile

# or with Nano
sudo nano ~/.bash_profile

And you can edit your ~/.zshrc profile file by issuing one of the following commands.

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sudo gedit ~/.zshrc

sudo nano ~/.zshrc

Anytime you make changes to your profile file, you have to source it.

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# BASH
source ~/.bashrc

source ~/.bash_profile

# ZSH
source ~/.zshrc

If the changes don't get applied to the current shell session for some reason, you have 2 options:

Use the exec bash command.

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exec bash

issue exec bash command

The exec command is used to execute a command from within bash.

We simply execute the bash command to restart the shell.

Alternatively, you can completely close the shell session and reopen it.

# Changing the permissions of your `~/.bashrc` file

The following command can be used to change the ownership of your ~/.bashrc file to the current user.

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sudo chown <USERNAME>:<USERNAME> ~/.bashrc

You can get your username by issuing the echo $USER command.

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echo $USER

If the error persists, try to set the permissions of your ~/.bashrc file to 644.

The 644 mode allows:

the owner to read and write to the file
the group to read the file
other users to read the file

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chmod 644 ~/.bashrc
chmod 644 ~/.bash_profile

The error should be resolved after granting your user permission to read and write to the ~/.bashrc file.

# Additional Resources

You can learn more about the related topics by checking out the following tutorials:

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bash: permission denied: /home/user/.bashrc error [Solved]