Re: bash profile not working
Marc Wilson wrote:
> ......
>
> Debian's X doesn't source those files because it's NOT SUPPOSED TO. Why
> would it? Those are files related to shells.
>
> If you're using startx to launch X, then they're already read.
Right.
> If you're
> using a display manager (xdm/gdm/kdm/wdm/whatever), then there's no shell
> running, so they shouldn't be read.
Not right.
You have still logged in to the system. Your login-time
environment settings should still be applied.
Maybe there's a question of which settings serve as your
login-time settings. There are some system-wide environment
variable settings that are set regardless of how one logs in.
(/etc/environment or whatever the PAM modules read.)
However, since users don't have control over those, there
needs to be some per-user set of login-time settings.
Currently, the shell login-time settings are those needed
per-user login-time settings.
Unless some other per-user login-time settings (that apply
regardless of how one logs in) are created, the shell
login-time settings should take effect regardless of how
one logs in.
Therefore, logging in graphically should use the shell
login-time settings (or some theoretical replacement meant
for common use).
Also, in what sense is no shell running? The window manager
process (or whatever runs requested programs) is your shell--
it runs other programs upon your commands and it is a process
with an environment that is inherited by spawned programs.
To avoid having to create an additional set of login-time
initialization files for each graphical login tool, the
graphical login sequence should re-use whatever mechanism
is used when logging in from the console.
Daniel
--
Daniel Barclay
dsb@smart.net
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