Unix / Linux: Initialize Dot Files Without Restarting The Current Shell Session

I'm a new Linux, OS X or Unix-like system users. I'm using bash shell. I made changes to my $HOME/.profile ($HOME/.bash_profile) file. How can I restart my session without doing logout and login again?

You can always initialize your shell startup files without restarting a Unix or Linux based session. The command and input file name depends upon your shell you are using. You can use the following command to find out your shell name:

echo $SHELL

Sample outputs:

/bin/csh

Restart a Unix/Linux session based on ksh or bash shell

The syntax is:

 
. $HOME/.profile
. $HOME/.bash_profile
 
## or Use source command ##
source $HOME/.profile
source $HOME/.bash_profile
 

The source or . is a shell builtin commands to read and execute commands from given FILENAM. If you have created a $HOME/.bashrc file, type:

 
. $HOME/.bashrc
 
## or 
 
source $HOME/.bashrc
 

Restart a Unix/Linux session based on csh or tcsh shell

The syntax is as follows for csh/tcsh based shell:

 
source .cshrc
source .login
 

For more info see your shell man pages - bash(1), tcsh(1), ksh(1) or type the following command:

 
help source
help .