Re: A question about /etc/profile (was: Scim does not work with openoffice)

[Rodolfo Medina <rodolfo.medina@gmail.com>]

Lisi Reisz <lisi.reisz@gmail.com> writes:

>>>>> I added the following lines to /etc/profile:
>>>>>
>>>>> export XMODIFIERS=@im=SCIM
>>>>> export GTK_IM_MODULE=scim
>>>>> export QT_IM_MODULE=scim

Rodolfo Medina wrote:

>>>> How can I get the same result *without* putting that stuff in
>>>> /etc/profile?  I mean, if I put that in /etc/profile, those commands are
>>>> run at every boot, wheraes I want to run them at my pleasure.  If I simply
>>>> give them from command line:
>>>>
>>>>  # export XMODIFIERS=@im=SCIM
>>>>  # export GTK_IM_MODULE=scim
>>>>  # export QT_IM_MODULE=scim
>>>>
>>>> they don't seem to take any effect.



Aneurin Price <aneurin.price@gmail.com> writes:

>>> What is it you're actually trying to do? Those environment variables should
>>> be set for the shell you typed that into, and any child processes. They
>>> won't be set globally because, as far as I know, there's no way to set the
>>> environment for a parent process. This means that if you're opening up an
>>> xterm or whatever and entering those variables then they will take effect
>>> for anything started from that xterm, but not for anything else. To have
>>> them set across the board you would need them set earlier - like in
>>> /etc/profile as you've discovered, or your user's config files.



Rodolfo Medina <rodolfo.medina@gmail.com> wrote:

>> All right, that answers my question, thanks.  Now, I put those lines in a
>> script:
>>
>> #!/bin/bash
>> export XMODIFIERS=@im=SCIM
>> export GTK_IM_MODULE=scim
>> export QT_IM_MODULE=scim
>>
>> , made it executable with `chmod 755' but it doesn't seem to work.  Why?



Aneurin Price <aneurin.price@gmail.com> writes:

> Let's say you've saved this as 'script', and you're running '$./script' or
> '$bash script'. What that will do is spawn a new bash process which
> interprets the script, and then exits. If you want the variables to be set in
> the shell you started from, rather than starting a new bash process, you
> shouldn't run the script but instead 'source' it, like '$source script'. This
> tells the existing shell to interpret the commands in the script, rather than
> creating a new shell to do it.


 $ source script

has the same effect than running those three commands from command line.
Instead, putting them in /etc/profile is more powerful, it gets more effects.
It seems there's no alternative to that?

Rodolfo