Re: SHELL environment variable.
>
> I was always under the impression that the SHELL envirinment variable
> was supposed to point to the _current_ shell. In my setup at least,
> it doesn't. It _always_ points to the login shell (I change to a
> different shell but the variable remains the same). Bug, feature,
> user error? Any comments or suggestions welcome.
It points to the login shell because it is the login program that sets
it. The shells don't do anything with it, they just inherit it from
their parent process. See man login.
If you want to determine what shell you run, you may be luckier trying
to read $0, although that gives rather erratic results as well (e.g.
bash gives adds a `-' in front if it is a login shell, csh doesn't seem
to recognize this at all).
HTH,
Eric
--
E.L. Meijer (tgakem@chem.tue.nl)
Eindhoven Univ. of Technology
Lab. for Catalysis and Inorg. Chem. (SKA)
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