Re: Bug#14264: cron doesn't put /usr/local/bin in PATH

[Steve Greenland <stevegr@NeoSoft.COM>]

A little history:

Lars Wirzenius wrote that cron no longer included /usr/local/bin in the
default path for user crontabs, and wanted to know what the hell I'd
done, and why. ;-).

I'll note that I was still running libc5, but that Martin Mitchell had
recently made a nmu of cron for libc6.

Among other things, I wrote:
> > As far as I can tell, after a brief look at the source, the source, the
> > PATH comes from the _PATH_DEFPATH variable in paths.h. On my machine,
> > that's /usr/local/bin:/usr/bin:/bin. Running "strings" on the -38 of
> > /usr/sbin/cron ( the latest "stable" release) shows that path. Likewise
> > on -39 ("unstable"). I've made no changes in that area.

and Herbert Xu replied:
> This is no longer the case with libc6.

and sure enough, he's correct. So now I have question I'd like to have
some input on:

I can:

1. Modify the cron source to add /usr/local/bin back to the path for
user crontabs. The advantage is that nobodies crontabs break, but we'll
be inconsistent with other (non-Debian) crons (I assume that Vixie Cron
is the defacto standard).

or

2. Let the path drop back to /usr/bin:/bin, and probably break a bunch
of crontabs. It's easy for a user to fix by adding a PATH= statement to
their crontab, but there will be LOTS of complaints, you betcha.

Opinions?

Steve Greenland

-- 
The Mole - I think, therefore I scream 

			    DAVE BARRY'S 1987 IN REVIEW -- Feb. 4th
			       The United States yacht Stars and Stripes
			       recaptures the coveted America's Cup when the
			       Australian entry, Kookaburra, is sunk by a
			       Chinese-made "Silkworm" missile.	 The U.S.
			       Sixth Fleet steams toward the troubled region
			       with orders to "form humongous targets."
[Dave Barry]


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