How does "Startup Applications" work?
/etc/rc.local
# This script is executed at the end of each multiuser runlevel. # Make sure that the script will "exit 0" on success or any other # value on error.
Essentially the Multiuser Runlevel means when you boot up.
/etc/profile
This file is invoked only for login shells because that is its specific purpose.
/etc/profile
, run by all Bourne-compatible shells (includingbash
anddash
) when started as a login shell./home/$USER/.profile
# ~/.profile: executed by the command interpreter for login shells. # This file is not read by bash if ~/.bash_profile or ~/.bash_login # exists.
Both the
~/.bashrc
and~/.bash_profile
are scripts that may be executed when bash is invoked. The~/.bashrc
file gets executed when you run bash using an interactive shell that is not a login shell. The~/.bash_profile
only gets executed during a login shell.Source
So I think
.profile
gets executed if neither of those were (for whatever reason).Finally, your GUI method is probably putting
.desktop
launchers in/home/$USER/.config/autostart
This is run at user logon (GUI login only I think - so
startx
would but nottty
login).
My pronouns are He / Him
Any desktop environment following the freedesktop specifications (aka XDG) should make use of autostarting applications on user login or whenever a removable medium was inserted.
For autostarting an application at user login the desktop environment looks for a .desktop
file to execute the application specified there. This .desktop
files usually are located in
$XDG_CONFIG_DIRS/autostart
But we can also have them in the following locations:
~/.config/autostart/ ## if $XDG_CONFIG_HOME is not set
etc/xdg/autostart/ ## if $XDG_CONFIG_DIRS is not set
In any case a .desktop
file located in ~/.config/autostart
is defined as being the most important file to be run thus overriding .desktop
files in other locations.
Ubuntu fulfills this specification and users can add applications with a GUI approach to "Autostart Applications".
Application can be auto-started independent of the desktop from various other locations such as ~/.profile
for the shell, in /etc/rc.local
for running at system start or, more recently by using systemd.