Path: utzoo!censor!geac!torsqnt!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!sdd.hp.com!think.com!paperboy!meissner From: meissner@osf.org (Michael Meissner) Newsgroups: comp.windows.x Subject: Re: Why does xterm use $SHELL if available and not /etc/passwd Message-ID: Date: 6 Dec 90 19:24:06 GMT References: <13442@encore.Encore.COM> Sender: news@OSF.ORG Organization: Open Software Foundation Lines: 43 In-reply-to: jludwig@pinocchio.encore.com's message of 6 Dec 90 14:46:37 GMT In article <13442@encore.Encore.COM> jludwig@pinocchio.encore.com (Jim Ludwig) writes: | xterm (X11R4 core dist) uses the SHELL environment variable to | determine which shell to run. It falls back on the password entry | shell if there is no SHELL environment variable set. | | I'm curious as to the logic behind this. There's no mention of this | behavior in the man page. | | The reason I'm asking, is that we have a make on our system which uses | SHELL to determine which shell to use. Since most Makefiles like to | use /bin/sh, you need to have SHELL set to /bin/sh. Fix your Makefile's, don't break xterm. Change the MAKEFILE to have a line of the form: SHELL = /bin/sh | Any feelings on whether xterm should or shouldn't use the SHELL | variable over the /etc/passwd entry? It definately should do the current behavior. For example, I don't use the standard shells (/bin/sh, /bin/csh) as my shell, I use bash. I have 3 or 4 different platforms I log into, with bash in the appropriate machine directory. For example: ~/bin.mips/bash ~/bin.mmax/bash ~/bin.vax/bash ~/bin.at386/bash On most systems (except for my workstation where I can edit /etc/passwd), my default shell is /bin/sh or /bin/csh, and the appropriate .profile/.login figures out that it's not running bash, and what machine it's on, and exec's the appropriate bash, after setting the SHELL variable. I want any further xterms to use this shell variables without adding any extra switches and such. -- Michael Meissner email: meissner@osf.org phone: 617-621-8861 Open Software Foundation, 11 Cambridge Center, Cambridge, MA, 02142 Considering the flames and intolerance, shouldn't USENET be spelled ABUSENET?