Where Does Bash Store Config and History?
Bash reads startup files and history from your home directory, with login versus interactive shells loading different sets.
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Bash configuration lives in dotfiles at home. Interactive shells source .bashrc on every start. Login shells source .bash_profile once, which classically chains to .bashrc. History appends to .bash_history per session.
That layering explains most confusion. Terminal emulators usually start interactive non-login shells, so .bashrc does the real work. macOS defaulted to zsh years ago, so these files matter there only after switching shells.
Where Bash stores this, by platform
~/.bashrc (plus ~/.bash_history)
Interactive shells source bashrc every start. Login shells chain through bash_profile. History appends to bash_history per session.
~/.bashrc (plus ~/.bash_history)
Default shell is zsh since Catalina, so these files apply only after switching to bash. Same layering rules when active.
Frequently asked questions
bashrc versus bash_profile, which runs?
Interactive shells read .bashrc; login shells read .bash_profile first. Put shared setup in .bashrc and source it from the profile. Duplicated definitions cause double PATH entries.
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