Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!rutgers!ucsd!usc!gem.mps.ohio-state.edu!rpi!tale
From: tale@pawl.rpi.edu (David C Lawrence)
Newsgroups: gnu.emacs.bug
Subject: Re: bug in GNU emacs
Message-ID: <1989Oct5.170825.26979@rpi.edu>
Date: 5 Oct 89 17:08:25 GMT
References: <8910051019.AL27323@unido.informatik.uni-dortmund.de>
Distribution: gnu
Organization: Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, Troy NY
Lines: 28

[More UUCP bouncing.  IcK.]

In <8910051019.AL27323@unido.informatik.uni-dortmund.de> Gottfried Klein
<unido!nixpbe!klein.muc@UUNET.UU.NET> writes:
GK> a minor bug is integrated in our version 18.51 of GNU emacs:
GK> When getting a shell and invoking "who am i" nothing happens.

It isn't precisely a bug with Emacs.  "who am i" uses the getlogin()
routine which has some limitations:

     getlogin() does not work for processes running under  a  pty
     (for  example,  emacs  shell buffers, or shell tools) unless
     the program ``fakes'' the login name in the /etc/utmp file.
     [From the SunOS 4.0.3 manual page for getlogin()]

You may have observed similar problems with ftp in a shell buffer.
The ftp code can come up with "nobody" as the default login name
because the getlogin() call fails but no attempt is made to then get
the name of the process owner ( getpwuid(getuid())->pw_name, for
example ).  This apparently has changed in recent SunOS releases, at
least, because I just tried it and it worked fine.

It could be argued, though not in this forum, that Emacs should
attempt to fake the /etc/utmp entry.

Dave
--
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