Date: Sat, 14 Oct 2000 01:54:33 -0600 (CST) From: Ryan Thompson <ryan@sasknow.com> To: Robert Shea <robert.shea@onlinecables.com> Cc: freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG Subject: Re: changing root shell?? Message-ID: <Pine.BSF.4.21.0010140147590.95876-100000@ren.sasknow.com> In-Reply-To: <00101316304203.17386@mephistopheles.onlinecables.net>
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Robert Shea wrote to freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG: > > > I have heard that you should not change your root shell. However, sh seems > > > to be in /bin on the root filesystem. So I don't see how that would cause > > > problem. How would I go about changing it?? I'd also like to change my > > > default editor (as I find vi very cumbersome). The book refers to editing > > > files, but I can't seem to find which files I'm supposed to edit. > > > Changing your root shell to sh is fine. Just try and avoid stuff on /usr > without a damn good reason, and knowledge of the consequences. A basic way to > change your default editor is with sysinstall. > > Ya know... all of this talk about changing root shells (again) has led me to > believe that the litrature that comes with fbsd, linux, etc just doesn't make > one thing clear enough to new unix users.... Root is only to be used for select > sys admin duties... not for browsing the web, or playing quake, or editing > graphics or whatever else... sheesh. > *gets off the soapbox* Exactly. That being said, though, when there is real administration work to be done, using a 'standard' shell such as sh can be somewhat cumbersome. The improved command history, substitutions, commandline completions, and vastly improved line editing features in the new shells make sysadmin tasks somewhat easier. The inclusion of tcsh in 4.0 is useful in this regard. People tend to forget about, or have no knowledge of, the 'toor' user. Give toor your chosen shell (chsh toor), assign her a password, and do your root duties from that account, leaving the real root account with the default shell. Best of both worlds, really, for about 99.5% of all sysadmin duties on a production machine. If a 'toor' account was not created on your system, just add another user after root with uid = 0, gid = 0 and remake the password db. -- Ryan Thompson <ryan@sasknow.com> Network Administrator, Accounts Phone: +1 (306) 664-1161 SaskNow Technologies http://www.sasknow.com #106-380 3120 8th St E Saskatoon, SK S7H 0W2 To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-questions" in the body of the message
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