Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!aplcen!uakari.primate.wisc.edu!caen!ox.com!lokkur!scs
From: scs@lokkur.dexter.mi.us (Steve Simmons)
Newsgroups: comp.mail.elm
Subject: Re: Changing default defaults
Message-ID: <1990Sep29.212206.1720@lokkur.dexter.mi.us>
Date: 29 Sep 90 21:22:06 GMT
References: <15514@reed.UUCP>
Organization: Inland Sea
Lines: 64

chaffee@reed.bitnet (Alex Chaffee,(259),,2341988) writes:

>By the way, there are two problems with the environment variables as
>defined: 1) the default PAGER is more, not builtin, and 2) the default
>EDITOR has the path name for the Vax spelled out ("/usr/local/jove"), which
>doesn't work on the workstations ("/local/bin/jove").  Elm is bright enough
>to find just "jove", without a pathname, on either machine.  But if someone
>saves their elmrc with /usr/local/jove hardwired, then tries to use elm on
>the workstations, it'll choke.  Oh yeah, we share the same account
>filesystems no matter which machine you're logged on to.

Respectfully, the problem is your users and your setup.  We run a variety
of heterogenous UNIX boxes (Ultrix, BSD4.3, SunOS 4, Gould UTS), all with
elm.  Our users who shortcircuit their paths in environment variables are
told it's their problem and to fix their .cshrc/.login/.profiles.  Typical
dialog:

They:	"But it starts up faster if I put the path."
Me:	"Well, you've already lost all that time by the errors it causes.
	Besides, all our shells hash so it's only slow the first time."
They:	"But I really need the fast startup."
Me:	"Fine.  Fix your .cshrc to set the path and aliases right on
	different systems.  Here, take a copy of my .login/.cshrc."

I would also question the sanity of the person who set up different local
bin directories on different systems where everyones home directory is
crossmounted.  It's a recipe for disaster.  A symlink of /usr/local to
/local/bin would fix it on the offending hosts, but that's just a patch
rather than a real fix.

Anyway, here's a copy of the relevant section of my .cshrc/.login, with
the needed aliases for jove added.

#
#  Usually true
#
alias jove /usr/local/jove
#
#  Do hosts-specific processing
#
setenv HOSTNAME `hostname`
switch ( "$HOSTNAME" )
	case "vax3*":
		ups -q
		# Different location here
		alias jove /local/bin/jove
		msgs
		breaksw
	case "wotan*":
	case "lokkur*":
		if ( "`tty`" == "/dev/ttyv0" ) .bin/X.startup
		breaksw
	case "zip.eecs.umich.edu":
		msgs
	case "*.eecs.umich.edu":
		alias jove /local/bin/jove
		mesg y
		breaksw
	default:
		breaksw
endsw

Put in your hostnames as appropriate, then host-specific aliases in
the right cases.