Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!samsung!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!swrinde!ucsd!helios.ee.lbl.gov!nosc!humu!pegasus!richard
From: richard@pegasus.com (Richard Foulk)
Newsgroups: comp.lang.perl
Subject: Re: How to find working directory?
Message-ID: <1990Aug5.115155.10191@pegasus.com>
Date: 5 Aug 90 11:51:55 GMT
References: <8974@jpl-devvax.JPL.NASA.GOV> <21198@duke.cs.duke.edu> <104612@convex.convex.com>
Organization: Pegasus,  Honolulu
Lines: 19
X-Local-Date: 5 Aug 90 04:51:55 PDT

>>GNU Emacs uses PWD if it exists.  my normal login shell updates PWD
>>but /bin/csh doesn't (under 4.3BSD) so when i fire up emacs after
>>su'ing to another user, emacs gets the wrong directory.  i'd say this
>>is busted.
>
>I'm not sure which you say is busted.  It seems highly suspect
>to look at your environment for the $PWD.  It's like trusting
>it for $USER.  Use getwd() and getpwnam(getuid()) for these.  
>What if a program does its own chdir() followed by an exec()
>or system()?  

The only time $USER isn't trusted is when security is at stake.  Having
a $PWD that is incorrect seems very ungood to me.  You could at least
remove it from the environment if you know it's wrong.



-- 
Richard Foulk		richard@pegasus.com