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List:       kde-devel
Subject:    Re: [Fwd: [Bug 53345] .bash_profile  script is not sourced]
From:       Oswald Buddenhagen <ossi () kde ! org>
Date:       2004-02-27 2:10:27
Message-ID: 20040227021027.GA24171 () ugly ! local
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On Thu, Feb 26, 2004 at 03:09:26PM -0800, George Lebl wrote:
> I think this is a reasonable long term expectation to have, have PAM
> do it.
>
the question is only _how_ long. i filed several bugs against linux-PAM,
including my ideas regarding the environment stuff when i was first
faced with it - that was some two years ago. i also filed a more or less
"regular" bug against pam_group, even some patch. guess what? _nothing_
happened. linux-pam is in a deep coma, only minimal maintenance is done
to it. there was not a single cvs commit during the last months. now
tell me, how realistic is your expectation?

> On systems that don't trust pam yet there /etc/profile usually wipes
> the PATH and such. 
>
yup.

> Sourcing /etc/profile doesn't really hurt
>
it does, exactly because of the above: it wipes kde out of the path.
gah!

> and gets you into the PATH situation that the user will be when they
> start a login shell once in the graphical environment.  It would be
> weird to get something different I suppose.
> 
that's sort of true.

but we still need a solution to Xsession not finding startkde if it is
not installed in the existing PATH. my current "solution" is the hack
mentioned above, but this did already bite me. i guess hard-coding the
path in the .desktop file would be an (ugly) option, but then startkde
would have to ensure that the path is set, as mentioned by somebody
else. alternatively one could provide a wrapper to startkde, install
that in /usr/local/bin (ignoring --prefix) and reference that in the
.desktop - great idea, huh?

> Having had experience of trying to convince distributors to use one
> particular script over another, it's an uphill battle because no one
> cares all that much since "things just work the way they are".
>
sad but true.

> /etc/profile and friends will stay around anyway since the only way a
> package can easily add to an environment semi-portably on linux
> systems so far is to drop a script into /etc/profile.d/.
>
hmm, that's a good idea for enhancing pam_env, actually ...

> I suppose a bit of kludge in some startup scripts (say startkde and
> similar) is justified.
>
no, i'm strictly against kludges. the problem about them is, that while
they work for 99% of the cases, they bite the remaining 1% all the more.
i know, because incidentally i'm always part of the one percent.

> Given all the horrors of what a *DM has to do to make things
> work in general, this type of kludge is pristine natural beauty anyway.
> 
which horrors? kdm is the beauty you mentioned. :)
oh, wait, we have to cope with the X server ... :}

greetings

-- 
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--
Chaos, panic, and disorder - my work here is done.
 
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