What is the config file for the sh shell on OS X? (i.e., ~/.bash_profile for bash shell, etc)

Question

R uses the /bin/sh shell environment and I'm running scripts (that cannot be modified) that call gfortran-4.8 instead of gfortran so I'm creating an alias. I have added the following line to my /etc/profile and ~/.bash_profile:
alias gfortran-4.8='gfortran'

However, here is the output from Terminal upon calling the alias gfortran-4.8:

my-MBP:~ myusername$ sh
sh-3.2$ gfortran-4.8 --version
sh: gfortran-4.8: command not found

Calling gfortran works just fine:

sh-3.2$ gfortran --version
gfortran: warning: couldn’t understand kern.osversion ‘14.4.0
GNU Fortran (GCC) 4.9.0
Copyright (C) 2014 Free Software Foundation, Inc.

If not /etc/profile or ~/.bash_profile, where should the alias command go?

EDIT: Also tried adding the alias to ~/.bashrc but that didn't work either.

Solution 1

When you start bash with as sh (for example, if /bin/sh is a symbolic link to bash), then the shell will only read /etc/profile and ~/.profile. The shell will not read ~/.bash_profile or ~/.bashrc.

Search for the phrase "invoked with the name sh" in your bash man page.

Solution 2

When bash is invoked as */sh, only /etc/profile and ${HOME}/.profile are read.

I have these lines in my .profile (using OS X):

if [ -n "${BASH_VERSION}" ]; then
    # include ~/.bashrc if it exists
    if [ -f "${HOME}/.bashrc" ]; then
        . "${HOME}/.bashrc"
    fi
fi

My .bashrc contains (among other things) these lines:

if [ -f ~/.bash_aliases ]; then
    . ~/.bash_aliases
fi

Now just create a .bash_aliases file with all your aliases in it.

Comments

[Admin]

What is your login or your interactive shell? (perhaps find out with ps $$) If it is bash edit ~/.bashrc

[Admin]

ps $$ outputs bash, and I tried editing ~/.bashrc but that didn't work either

[Admin]

Edit your question to improve it. Don't comment it.

[Admin]

Is there any way to include that on sh shell startup? While that works in Terminal it does not work in R even after executing system('source ~/.bashrc'). R by default requires the sh shell.

[Admin]

You should probably consider checking some .rprofile configurations/customizations, like e.g. this one