Re: error message:shel-init: cannot get working directory
This error occurs when a user shell task (from su -c ...) starts in a
directory which it is unable to read.
I traced the cron.daily example to the updatedb script, which runs the
command 'su nobody -c "/usr/bin/updatedb ..... " '.
cron runs in /var/spool/cron, which is readable only by root:
$ ls -ld /var/spool/cron
drwx------ 2 root root 1024 Oct 9 1995 /var/spool/cron
As a result, the shell running the script /usr/bin/updatedb gets an error
when it calls the function getcwd() [that function walks the tree by tracing
inode numbers, so needs to get the inode number of the directory '.']
I fixed that (on a RedHat system) by putting a 'cd /tmp' into the script
/etc/cron.daily/updatedb.cron.
Check the permissions on all the directories from / to the user home
directories (presumably / and /home). Make sure that they are all at least
world-readable
Tim
On Tue, 26 Aug 1997 04:16:34 GMT, Hamish Moffatt <hmoffatt@mail.com> wrote:
>On Mon, Aug 25, 1997 at 11:00:48AM -0700, mray01@ccsf.cc.ca.us wrote:
>>
>> Not too long after installing Debian 1.3.? from cheapbytes I now get :
>>
>> shel-init: cannot get working directory : getcwd: cannot access parent
>> directories
>>
>> This is only with user accounts. Root doesn't do this.
>
>I was getting this from cron.daily for a while; seems to have stopped
>now, I don't remember if I fixed anything or not.
>
>
>Hamish
>--
>Hamish Moffatt, StudIEAust hmoffatt@mail.com
>Student, computer science & computer systems engineering. 3rd year, RMIT.
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>
>
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--
Tim Frost, Systems Engineer Email: Tim.Frost@nz.eds.com
EDS (NZ) Ltd, Voice: +64 4 495-0504
P.O. Box 3647, Fax: +64 4 495-0473
Wellington, New Zealand.
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