Skip site navigation (1)Skip section navigation (2)
Date:      Wed, 22 Jan 1997 20:16:58 -0500
From:      Ron Steele <ron@dc.infi.net>
To:        questions@freebsd.org
Subject:   Re: How can I chang my root shell
Message-ID:  <32E6BC0A.61BC@dc.infi.net>
References:  <Pine.BSF.3.95.970122191618.411A-100000@localhost>

next in thread | previous in thread | raw e-mail | index | archive | help
Nessus wrote:
> 
> On Wed, 22 Jan 1997 gippolit@ccsmtp2.eccs.com wrote:
> 
> =)     How do I change my root shell
> =)
> =)
> You don't want to do this.  Login as a regular user and su to root
> instead, it will keep the original user's shell (assuming you don't use
> the -l option)
> The reason for this:
> Assume you change root's shell to /usr/local/bin/tcsh, then later on,
> something breaks in your rc, /usr won't be mounted and root won't have a
> shell.

And even if you copy the tcsh or whatever over to /bin, it is probably
dynamically linked and needs the libraries in /usr/lib to run.  The only
way to do it is compile/link your own shell so you know it is statically
linked, copy this to /bin and then change the password file to point to
the new shell. Of course then you stand a fair chance of breaking a
critical shell script somewhere.  

Much better to use su -m

Ron



Want to link to this message? Use this URL: <https://mail-archive.FreeBSD.org/cgi/mid.cgi?32E6BC0A.61BC>