When $HISTFILESIZE is set in ~/.bashrc (or any other bash user initialization file), bash during the login session respects its value and truncates ~/.bash_history (I assume the default $HISTFILE) when its line number exceeds $HISTFILESIZE. But with new user login bash truncates ~/.bash_history to 9999 lines, it is very annoying when $HISTFILESIZE is greater that 9999. HISTFILESIZE=9999 is set in /etc/profile but I think bash handles it too early that it should.