Date: Thu, 15 Sep 2005 10:10:23 +0100 From: Alex Zbyslaw <xfb52@dial.pipex.com> To: Dave Webster <dwebman@telus.net> Cc: FreeBSD questions <freebsd-questions@freebsd.org> Subject: Re: can't run /sbin commands Message-ID: <43293A7F.9050607@dial.pipex.com> In-Reply-To: <1126765442.5238.13.camel@localhost> References: <1126765442.5238.13.camel@localhost>
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Dave Webster wrote:
>When I first installed FreeBSD I was able to run "halt" and "reboot" as
>su without the full /sbin/reboot command. After adding a new path to
>PATH, I've been unable to run these commands without specifying the full
>path.
>[...]
>Here is the output of echo $PATH:
>/sbin:/bin:/usr/sbin:/usr/bin:/usr/games:/usr/local/sbin:/usr/local/bin:
>/usr/X11R6/bin:/home/Dave/bin:/usr/home/Dave/apache-forrest-0.7/bin
>
>My question is with /sbin in the path why do I have to
>specify /sbin/reboot, /sbin/kldstat etc.? Could this be causing my make
>install to fail? How can /sbin be in the path and still require a full
>path declaration for it's commands to work.
>
>
The short answer to your question is that if /sbin really were in your
path you would be able to run programs from it, therefore /sbin is *not*
in your path. (Since you can run commands from /sbin with full path
names it can't be file permissions or deleted programs). Either that or
something else on you path is somehow messing up your shell big-time,
but that seems less likely.
You say that the problems started after you changed you path (I assume
in your .profile or whatever). So, quite simply, you must have made
some kind of mistake. I would suggest going back to the file you edited
and starting again. Comment out the PATH specification and add things
back one at a time. Assuming a /bin/sh or derivative, you can re-load
your file with
. filename
(for csh derivatives, use "source filename").
After each change you make, source the changes and see if you can run
some innocuous program from /sbin such as kldstat.
--Alex
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