On Tue, Oct 03, 2017 at 10:36:17PM +0200, Mikulas Patocka wrote: > The problem is that $OLDPWD causes unintended activations of the > automounter and unintended delays. For example > /root# cd /some/automounted/directory > /some/automounted/directory# cd ~ > /root# /etc/init.d/mail-daemon start > > - now, the mail daemon inherits OLDPWD=/some/automounted/directory and > every incoming email will poke this directory and activate the automounter > and cause delay.
To be fair, there are several things that have to happen in order for this problem to arise: 1) The system must be using sysv-rc style init scripts, and not any of the other init systems where the interactive environment doesn't leak into daemons in the first place. 2) The mail-daemon (and the init.d scripts which launch it) must not cleanse the environment. 3) The mail-daemon must invoke a bash script, specified directly in the shebang, or via a /bin/sh -> bash symlink. 4) The sysadmin has to get unlucky with respect to the order in which tasks are performed within a single shell session. I'm not doubting that there exist some systems where all of these conditions may be simultaneously met, but it's quite a stack. The question remains: what, if anything, should be changed?
