Different shell behavior during start up

[Doug Lewan <dougl@shubertticketing.com>]

To begin: I have a work-around for the issue described below, but I'd like to understand what's going on.

In my .emacs I have `(shell)' and that (1) does not run my .bash_profile and therefore (2) picks up the current shell environment.

I'd like a second shell that behaves the same way, but all of the following run my profile and therefore overwrite the current shell environment:

C-u M-x shell <RET> *build*
M-: (shell "*build*")
M-: (let ((explicit-bash-args (delete "-i" explicit-bash-args))) (shell "*build*"))
$ emacs -eval '(shell "*build*")'
$ emacs -eval '(let ((explicit-bash-args (delete "-i" explicit-bash-args))) (shell "*build*"))'

The invocations that reset explicit-bash-args do indeed redefine it, but the effect seems to be global.

Can anyone help me understand what the difference between `(shell)' and the other evaluations is? I do notice that `-eval' is not mentioned as an initialization option (info "(emacs) Initial Options"), so I assume that all of the above are really operating under the same conditions.

Thanks for any insight.

-- 
,Doug
Douglas Lewan
Shubert Ticketing
(201) 489-8600 ext 224 or ext 4335

"This is a slow pup," he said continuing his ascent.