On Thu, Aug 02, 2001 at 03:11:28AM -0400, [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote:
> a couple of basic questions:
> 1. if a user's path isn't specified in .bashrc, what path is used, and what
> file is it found in?
here's how to find out:
1) make sure your ~/.bash* files don't set yuor $PATH (comment
out any lines that do)
2) log in
your $PATH is set to SOMETHING:
3) echo $PATH
find out where:
4) grep -r "$PATH" /etc
but this might not work if $PATH is set and then appended (or
prepended) to...
> 2. are paths recursive? (i'm thinking not on this one, or else why not just
> set the path to the root directory?)
the $PATH environment variable tells your shell where to go
looking for an executable program when you don't specify a full
path on the command line:
$ ls
$ perl
$ ifconfig
that sure beats typing
$ /bin/ls
$ /usr/bin/perl
$ /sbin/ifconfig
doesn't it? and it works when your $PATH includes
/bin
/usr/bin
/sbin
that last one (/sbin) is system binaries mostly useful to the
system adminostrator, so normal users won't have /sbin in their
$PATH list, and "ifconfig" won't be found by the shell.
if you set $PATH to '' (empty) then you'll have to include the
full path for EVERY non-builtin command there is. (ick!)
so no, it's not recursive --
1) that's very taxing to search all subdirectories (to see the
effects on your system, try "find / -name something -print" and
listen to the disk crunch away)
2) there's no prioritization where /sub3/subsubX would be searched
before /sub1/dir5 if you wanted it to be. with $PATH you can specify
~/bin first to have your own home-grown programs 'override' the
system utilities, at least for your user login
3) who wants to wait for "find / ..." to finish?
of course, you could write your own shell that DOES recurse...
this is linux, after all.
--
DEBIAN NEWBIE TIP #60 from Vineet Kumar <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
:
Been hoping to find A FEATURE-PACKED MUTT CONFIG FILE? Check
out the ones at Sven Guckes' site:
http://www.fefe.de/muttfaq/muttrc
There's also some great vimrc ideas there, too.
Also see http://newbieDoc.sourceForge.net/ ...
