From owner-freebsd-questions Wed Dec 8 3:22:14 1999 Delivered-To: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org Received: from axl.noc.iafrica.com (axl.noc.iafrica.com [196.31.1.175]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 87EBD14CC4 for ; Wed, 8 Dec 1999 03:22:08 -0800 (PST) (envelope-from sheldonh@axl.noc.iafrica.com) Received: from sheldonh (helo=axl.noc.iafrica.com) by axl.noc.iafrica.com with local-esmtp (Exim 3.11 #1) id 11vf8j-00055O-00; Wed, 08 Dec 1999 13:20:09 +0200 From: Sheldon Hearn To: Usov Alexander Cc: freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG Subject: Re: /etc/profile question In-reply-to: Your message of "Wed, 08 Dec 1999 13:50:00 +0200." <384E45E8.13DE9BF9@hq.ups.kiev.ua> Date: Wed, 08 Dec 1999 13:20:09 +0200 Message-ID: <19553.944652009@axl.noc.iafrica.com> Sender: owner-freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG Precedence: bulk X-Loop: FreeBSD.ORG On Wed, 08 Dec 1999 13:50:00 +0200, Usov Alexander wrote: > I understand that it`s not so important question, but it`s only > interesting for me: why in standart disribution /etc/profile > is empty (or just empty)? > Is it so difficult to put them, to help newbies? As for me, it would > be a good idea to make system usable after installing. I think you've missed something important. See /usr/share/skel/dot.profile This file should be installed as .profile into the home directory of every new account you create. This allows individual users to see at a glance what defaults are set for them and provides a template which they can modify to change those defaults. If you were to put all that stuff in /etc/profile, you'd have two problems: 1) You don't want all of it set for automated processes which exec a shell to do some work. 2) Your newbies might struggle to find out _where_ the stuff was being done. So in actual fact, the way we do things now is actually to _help_ newbies, not to make it hard for them. :-) Later, Sheldon. To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-questions" in the body of the message