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Re: Path modification



fsblk@aurora.uaf.edu (Britton) wrote:

> If the admin saw the package, got interested, and installed it,
> the message *to the admin* seems potentially useful, since PATH is
> fundamental and mh requires an unusual change to work at all.

Changing the default PATH for all users (e.g., in /etc/profile) would
imply (or rather *should* imply) that *all* users on the system will be
MH users.  This may be true in some very isolated cases, but should not
be assumed to be true in general.  It should be the *user's* decision to
modify his path to use the MH shell commands.

> Since debian ships things like mh-e, which usefully wrap and simplify
> nmh, the potential for confusion is significant.  But perhaps this is
> an mh-e bug.

The potential for confusion does not exist.  MH-E does *not* require
/usr/bin/mh to be added to the PATH.  (I know; I just tried it.)
Therefore, all users are free to use MH-E without knowing anything at
all about /usr/bin/mh or anything about the MH shell commands.

If an MH-E user wishes to also use the MH shell commands, then he or she
should be familiar with how these commands work.  That implies that the
user in question will have already read the MH documentation, including
the nmh man page, and this user will already know that he should modify
the PATH environment variable.

- Brian



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