.bashrc file is an initialization file run by each interactive invocation




i search the web and found the following statements


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the /etc/profile file is a system wide initialization script which is run at login time for each user, while .profile is the users own login initialization. the .bashrc file is an initialization file run by each interactive invocation of the bash shell. my .bashrc simply sources the other two, so that all interactive shells get the same initialization. aliases common to all users rest in /etc/profile, others go into .profile.
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as my limited knowledge to linux/unix, i do not follow what is "interative invocation of the bash shell". could anyone please give me an example to this.

/etc/profile and .profile (or indeed .bash_profile) are run when bash is called by the login process, this happens when you log on via a terminal or telnet or ssh or something similar.

.bashrc (and indeed /etc/bash.bashrc) are run when bash is called by any other method, for example if you logged on and then just type 'bash' or if you logged onto a graphical terminal and ran an xterm or if you ran a bash shell script from the command line.