Re: Login Procedure

[Kent West <westk@acu.edu>]

Vaibhav Agrawal wrote:

> HI!
> I wanted to what is the sequence of files or scripts being executed 
> when a user logs in.
>
> Thank you.
>
> Vaibhav.
Depends on the authorization system used, but the default in Debian i386 
(PAM and friends) is to check the username/password against /etc/passwd 
and /etc/shadow. If the user is successfully authenticated, the shell or 
process listed as the last item on that user's line in /etc/passwd is 
fired off, which as a default is usually /bin/bash. At that point bash 
takes over and reads its start-up files, such as the .bashrc and 
.bash_profile files in the user's home directory, as well as system-wide 
scripts such as /etc/bash.bashrc.

This brief explanation assumes you're logging in from the console, not 
from a session manager such as kdm or wdm, which have their own 
sequences to be figured out.

This also does not address the sequence of files or scripts being 
executed at boot-time, which is not what your question concerns, but 
rather only what happens when a user logs in.

--
Kent