Bug#880992: debian-policy should not recommend running editor using absolute path
On Wed, Nov 08, 2017 at 12:31:09PM -0800, Jonathan Nieder wrote:
> Hi,
>
> Sean Whitton wrote:
> > On Mon, Nov 06 2017, Jonathan Nieder wrote:
>
> >> Thus, every program that launches an editor or pager must use
> >> the EDITOR or PAGER environment variable to determine the editor
> >> or pager the user wishes to use. If these variables are not set,
> >> the programs /usr/bin/editor and /usr/bin/pager should be used,
> >> respectively.
> >>
> >> If read strictly, this says that I must use "/usr/bin/editor" instead
> >> of invoking "editor" from the $PATH. (I'm not sure I agree with that
> >> interpretation, but it came up in https://bugs.debian.org/682347.)
> >> Running "editor" from the $PATH instead of using that full path should
> >> be perfectly acceptable and IMHO is a better behavior, since it allows
> >> the user to put a custom editor in /usr/local/bin or $HOME/bin.
> >
> > ISTM that the intention is for the user to set EDITOR and PAGER to
> > select an editor or pager, rather than putting things called 'editor'
> > and 'pager' into PATH.
>
> I understand and agree, but that doesn't mean that packages should
> invoke editor using an absolute path.
>
> Policy describes package behavior, not user behavior.
>
> Further, a sysadmin on a shared machine doesn't have a way to set
> EDITOR for all users,
Why not ? PAM can do it, see /etc/environment?
Cheers,
--
Bill. <ballombe@debian.org>
Imagine a large red swirl here.
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