Bug#3008: Telnetd sets wrong USER (funny side effects)

[Marek Michalkiewicz <marekm@i17linuxb.ists.pwr.wroc.pl>]

Guy Maor:
>
> I don't mind changing login to set or clear the USER variable, but any
> program that requires it is buggy.  Consulting W.R. Stevens, I find
> that USER is required by neither POSIX.1 nor XPG3.  LOGNAME is, and
> login dutifully sets it.

FYI, login from the shadow suite sets both.  The following comment in
the code explains why:

	/*
	 * Export the user name.  For BSD derived systems, it's "USER", for
	 * all others it's "LOGNAME".  We set both of them.
	 */

> Programs using USER should instead use LOGNAME.

We are POSIX, but we also use many BSD sources.  I agree they all
should use LOGNAME instead, but until we are sure they all have been
modified to use LOGNAME, I think it is wise to set both variables.
Some of the various /etc/X11/... scripts also use USER, not LOGNAME.

Regards,

Marek