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How can I automatically execute certain commands every time I start Stata?

If you want to execute certain commands automatically every time you start Stata, you can put these commands into a file named profile.do, which is a do-file that Stata executes every time that it starts. Once started, Stata looks for this file and executes every command in the file before you begin entering commands. If you are familiar with Unix, this feature is similar to the .cshrc file.

See [GSW] B.3 Executing commands every time Stata is started or [GSM] B.1 Executing commands every time Stata is started or [GSU] B.1 Executing commands every time Stata is started for information on where to save the profile.do file so Stata can find it.

An example profile.do file is

        set logtype text
        set type double

Some Stata settings can be made “permanent” so that you do not have to put commands to set them in profile.do. For example, if you want Stata to pause output with a --more-- in the Results window, you could type

        set more on, permanently

See help set read about the setting you wish to change to see if you can set it permanently.

Note for system administrators: If you have settings you want to make for all Stata users at your site, or if there are certain settings you want to apply before the user’s profile.do is executed, you can do so with a file named sysprofile.do. sysprofile.do works just like profile.do, but Stata searches for it first and will execute the commands in it before those in profile.do. A common place to put sysprofile.do is in the directory where Stata is installed. See the manual sections referenced above for more details.