Date: Thu, 15 May 2008 11:03:39 -0400 From: Gerard <gerard@seibercom.net> To: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org Subject: Re: Configuring Bash Message-ID: <20080515110339.297fa37e@scorpio> In-Reply-To: <482C4CC3.3080802@cs.okstate.edu> References: <1210810823.5782.1253224263@webmail.messagingengine.com> <482C4CC3.3080802@cs.okstate.edu>
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On Thu, 15 May 2008 09:46:27 -0500
Reid Linnemann <lreid@cs.okstate.edu> wrote:
> Written by Montag on 05/14/08 19:20>>
> > This should be a fairly simple process, I don't really know what I
> > am missing.
> >
> > I've got the following in the .bash_profile of a basic user account:
> >
> > # set prompt [user@host--/dir] $ (# for root)
> > PS1 = ' [\u@\h--\w] '
> > case `id -u` in
> > 0) PS1='${PS1} # ';; # root
> > *) PS1='${PS1} $ ';; # everyone else
> >
> > When I log in, I am greeted with:
> > ${PS1} $ $
> >
> > However, if I su to root, I get:
> > [root@host-- /home/user]#
> >
> > That is what I wanted, but for some reason it is not working for a
> > normal user. I thought perhaps the problem could be
> > that .bash_profile is only loaded when a non-login shell is
> > spawned, but a quick consultation of man bash revealed that bash
> > reads ~/.bash_profile when it is invoked as a login shell.
> >
> > My next thought was that it was a permissions issue, but:
> > su
> > chmod 777 .bash_profile
> > exit
> > logout
> > login
> >
> > That did not change the results, the output was still the same as
> > above. This is all being done at the console, by the way.
> >
> > Appreciate any advice,
> >
> > montag
> > --------------------------
> > "Give the people contests they win by remembering the words to more
> > popular songs or the names of state capitals or how much corn Iowa
> > grew last year. Cram them full of non-combustible data, chock them
> > so damned full of 'facts' they feel stuffed, but absolutely
> > 'brilliant' with information. Then they'll feel they're thinking,
> > they'll get a sense of motion without moving."
>
> There are a few problems with what you are attempting here.
>
> Your ~/.bash_profile is executed once, only when you log in. When you
> su to root, a shell is started for root (according to root's shell
> set in /etc/passwd) and that shell will do whatever it wants to do as
> far as dotfile processing is concerned. Your ordinary
> user's .bash_profile is ignored.
>
> Since the ordinary user's .bash_profile is only executed once, when
> the user's shell starts, the *) condition is always met in the case
> statement, so that expression is executed:
>
> PS1='${PS1} $ ';;
>
> This will always result in PS1 being the literal '${PS1} $ ' for that
> user. Why? Because if you read your bash manual you'll see that
> variable expansion does not happen in single quoted strings.
>
> PS1="${PS1} \$ ";;
>
> The above string will do what you intend, it will set PS1 to whatever
> ${PS1} is expanded to, plus the extra ' $ ' (you have to escape a
> literal $ in a double quoted string).
>
> As has been mentioned before, what you really want is to use the '\$'
> literal to clue in the sh/bash to use a # for root and $ for all other
> users.
>
> PS1="${PS1} \\$ ";;
>
> That is the PS1 that will do it.
>
> But again, because su invokes a new shell, if root's shell is not a sh
> variant that uses $PS1, like the default csh, your prompt will not
> carry over. csh will uses its own internal prompt variable and ignore
> sh's PS1 environment variable.
I placed the following in my ~/.bash_profile file.
# This is the .bash_profile file
# Read on bash login and similar to .profile
# This file passes control to the '.bashrc' file if it is present
if [ -f ~/.bashrc ]; then
. ~/.bashrc
fi
Then in my ~/.bashrc file, I created an alias:
alias su='su -m'
Now, whenever I go to root, the environment is not modified and I still
have bash as my shell. I don't know if this will work for you or not.
It should not hurt to try it.
--
“Gerard”
gerard@seibercom.net
Love is in the offing. Be affectionate to one who adores you.
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