Bug#2985: login: "You must exec login from the lowest level shell."
Package: login
Version: 1.0-1
Some of my users have been mentioning seeing this error message:
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dave@zenda:~$ telnet valour.pem
Trying 131.111.200.47...
Connected to valour.pem.cam.ac.uk.
Escape character is '^]'.
Linux 1.3.98 (valour)
You must exec login from the lowest level shell.
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I've had a quick look at the login source to see where this error
message comes from.
It appears to be a test to ensure that login isn't started from a
shell other than by using 'exec'.
Login checks utmp for the line in question to see if it is in use. I
don't know how reliable this is; won't there be a race with init
clearing up dead utmp entries (ie, if init doesn't mark the entry as
DEAD quickly enough, then login can think it's still in use).
This is a transient problem, that usually is repeatable for a few
minutes, then goes away (presumably when that utmp entry in next
used).
I'm filing this as a bug, because I don't think a scrambled utmp
should stop you being able to log in.
Austin
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