I am going to set the path for mySQl on my computer (I'm running Snow Leopard) but I see different instructions online.
Some say to change the .profile file and some say to change the .bash_profile file. What is the difference?
.profile works with sh or bash. However .bash_profile is bash-specific and will override .profile if present.
hlim
I believe mac OS X environment checks .bash_profile, .bash_login, .profile in this order. It will run whichever is the highest in the hierarchy, so, if you have .bash_profile, it will not check .profile.
来源：https://stackoverflow.com/questions/6751252/difference-between-profile-and-bash-profile-on-snow-leopard