title: Question about .profile generated by ubuntu 11.04
body: <p>I noticed the following lines at the bottom of my <code>~/.profile</code> that was generated from when I installed Ubuntu 11.04:</p>
  
  <pre><code># set PATH so it includes user's private bin if it exists
  if [ -d "$HOME/bin" ] ; then
      PATH="$HOME/bin:$PATH"
  fi
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>I see the logic there, but shouldn't the PATH variable be exported?</p>
  
  <pre><code># set PATH so it includes user's private bin if it exists
  if [ -d "$HOME/bin" ] ; then
      export PATH="$HOME/bin:$PATH"
  fi
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>If not, then I don't understand how the value of PATH does not get lost once the bottom of the <code>.profile</code> file is reached, unless something is sourcing this file with <code>. ~/.profile</code>, which I do not see (at least explicitly) happening in any other shell script on the system.</p>