Subject: From: Date:

Re: [ecs] Fwd: linux questions Neil Cherry Wed, 16 Feb 2005 20:12:07 -0500

---

Mark Gilmore wrote:
> I just discovered su's "-p" (preserve environment) argument (which 
> solves my PATH problem).
> But I'm still curious to know just where "su" is getting it's PATH, less 
> this argument.

I just looked at the man page, it turns out I didn't know what I
thought I knew. The '-' command treats the su as a login. Initializing
the env to defaults and running the login scripts (like when you
login).

I did find something about using a pre-compiled string but that
was for the '-' option. I see that my prompt changes when changing
to root:

Normal:
/usr/kerberos/bin:/usr/local/bin:/usr/bin:/bin:/usr/X11R6/bin: ...

After su:
/usr/kerberos/sbin:/usr/kerberos/bin:/usr/local/bin:/usr/bin:/bin:/usr/X11R6/bin: 
...

I have no idea how that /usr/kerberos/sbin got in there. No, wait, I
know! It's the PAM sub-system!

-- 
Linux Home Automation         Neil Cherry       ncherry@comcast.net
http://home.comcast.net/~ncherry/               (Text only)
http://hcs.sourceforge.net/                     (HCS II)
http://linuxha.blogspot.com/                    My HA Blog

---