gautamc wrote: > 1. I need a certain directory on my debian squeeze machine ( /var/lib/ > gems/1.8/bin/ ) to be in the PATH when i run a sudo command. Hence, I > appended this dir to the ENV_PATH item in /etc/login.defs Two comments: First comment: If you need that for sudo then instead of changing login.defs I think you should set the change in /etc/sudoers and add that path to the secure_path variable. Here is the default: Defaults secure_path="/usr/local/sbin:/usr/local/bin:/usr/sbin:/usr/bin:/sbin:/bin" Add your path to that path and place it in the sudoers file and then it will always be activated for each use of sudo. Second comment: You might want to subscribe to debian-ruby and discuss your ruby environment there. It is really a tragedy that the upstream Ruby community has taught everyone that you must use root to smash installations over the top of systems. It is a shame that Ruby couldn't have learned from the trail blazed by Perl. That is a very long discussion however. > 2. Is there is a way to get /etc/login.defs "re-evaluated" without > rebooting. I put an export PATH in ~/.profile and have the path set > for the non-root user. However, a sudo command doesn't see the new dir > in $PATH. The /etc/login.defs and ~/.profile and /etc/profile all are sourced when the user logs into the account. Therefore in order to source those again you either need to manually source the files (with "source ~/.profile or ". ~/.profile")), OR exec a new login shell on top of the current shell (with "exec bash -l"), OR log out and log back in again. You do NOT need to reboot. However none of those options are very appealing to me. On a Unix-like system such as Debian you should always be able to install something and have it be immediately available. It is a tragedy when that paradigm is broken by misguided processes such as one my peeves /etc/profile.d/ and others. Setting up sudo's secure_path takes immediate affect and does not require any manual sourcing or logging out and back in. Bob
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