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Date:      Wed, 08 Dec 1999 13:20:09 +0200
From:      Sheldon Hearn <sheldonh@uunet.co.za>
To:        Usov Alexander <usov@hq.ups.kiev.ua>
Cc:        freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG
Subject:   Re: /etc/profile question 
Message-ID:  <19553.944652009@axl.noc.iafrica.com>
In-Reply-To: Your message of "Wed, 08 Dec 1999 13:50:00 %2B0200." <384E45E8.13DE9BF9@hq.ups.kiev.ua> 

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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.


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