Shells initialization files

Question

I know that in linux(usually) such initialization file will be .bashrc (bash is the default shell), for OSX it will be .bash_profile. But there are also different shells, like zsh.

So I wonder, if I will have bash as the default shell, with it's configuration in .bashrc, and then I'll decide to run exec zsh - what file would I need to edit to specify the initialization steps for zsh specifically? Are there separate files for different kinds of shells that are running while initialization a new terminal?

I tried to add some aliases before to my .bashrc to achieve the same result:

alias switch_to_zsh="exec zsh; source zsh_config.sh"

But after switching to zsh it forgets about source zsh_config.sh part.

• thrig: Nothing after the exec will be run (if exec succeeds) as exec will replace the existing process with something that has no idea about whatever other commands were in queue with the previous process.

Answer 1

from zsh manual:

 Commands are then read from $ZDOTDIR/.zshenv. If the shell is a login
 shell, commands are read from /etc/zsh/zprofile and then $ZDOT‐
 DIR/.zprofile. Then, if the shell is interactive, commands are read
 from /etc/zsh/zshrc and then $ZDOTDIR/.zshrc. Finally, if the shell is
 a login shell, /etc/zsh/zlogin and $ZDOTDIR/.zlogin are read.

Answer 2

This page lists the startup files for the most common *nix shells. For zsh the equivalent to .bashrc is .zshrc.