From owner-freebsd-questions Fri Jan 24 10:01:14 1997 Return-Path: Received: (from root@localhost) by freefall.freebsd.org (8.8.5/8.8.5) id KAA09829 for questions-outgoing; Fri, 24 Jan 1997 10:01:14 -0800 (PST) Received: from obie.softweyr.ml.org ([199.104.124.49]) by freefall.freebsd.org (8.8.5/8.8.5) with ESMTP id KAA09822 for ; Fri, 24 Jan 1997 10:01:09 -0800 (PST) Received: (from wes@localhost) by obie.softweyr.ml.org (8.7.5/8.6.12) id IAA03070; Fri, 24 Jan 1997 08:45:22 -0700 (MST) Date: Fri, 24 Jan 1997 08:45:22 -0700 (MST) Message-Id: <199701241545.IAA03070@obie.softweyr.ml.org> From: Wes Peters To: questions@freebsd.org Subject: Re: How can I chang my root shell In-Reply-To: References: <9700228539.AA853976013@ccsmtp2.eccs.com> Sender: owner-questions@freebsd.org X-Loop: FreeBSD.org Precedence: bulk gippolit@ccsmtp2.eccs.com wrote: =) How do I change my root shell jandrese@vt.edu replied: > 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. If you really want a root login account, create another account with uid/gid of zero. I have a 'rootb' account on my machines, which is root with the bash shell. This leaves root in the standard configuration, but gives me a login account with a usable shell. ;^) BTW, doing an 'su' without using '-' is dangerous, you often have PATH entries in your account that you *really don't want* while root. -- "Where am I, and what am I doing in this handbasket?" Wes Peters Softweyr LLC http://www.xmission.com/~softweyr softweyr@xmission.com