Re: Where is the PATH set?
On Wed, Jan 05, 2005 at 05:57:13PM -0600, David Dyer-Bennet wrote:
> On a standard install woody system, in particular.
>
> Particularly, where does it get set on console login, and where does
> it get set for an ssh session? And where does it get set for an
> xterm? And where does it get set for an Emacs shell window? I'd
> prefer these to be the same, but....
>
> And then, where is it set for a root session? And for a zup-initiated
> root session?
>
> Is it in /etc/profile? Is it in /etc/bash.bashrc? (or equivalent for
> other shells)?
>
> Is it in /etc/login.defs?
>
> Or might it be in /etc/pam.d/login, or /etc/pam.d/ssh? Or maybe
> /etc/security/pam_env.conf?
>
> It *looks like* it's set in /etc/profile. But *why* it's set there I
> haven't a clue. That's later than the more sensible places, so will
> override them. And it's shell-specific, and only gets executed on
> certain kinds of shell startups.
>
> Why *isn't* it set in /etc/login.defs? Does that not work? Same
> question for pam_env.conf. And how do those two compete with each
> other, by the way?
>
> This rather looks like it's starting to open a can of worms -- how
> user processes are started up. Is this documented anywhere in enough
> detail to be of any use? I'm afraid of deciding to do things one way,
> only to discover that that's on its way out and Debian is moving
> towards doing things another way, and the stuff I chose to standardize
> on was vestigial.
I looked at the POSIX standard to see what it says about PATH. Of
course it is mentioned, but it seems its existence on a compliant
system is not even required. It is required that, if it exists, it
obey certain rules which are given in some detail. I didn't see any
indication that there are rules as to how and when it is set. (But, I
didn't really look hard)
HTH
--
Paul E Condon
pecondon@mesanetworks.net
Reply to: