On Fri 30 Mar 2018 at 09:59:22 (-0400), Greg Wooledge wrote: > On Thu, Mar 29, 2018 at 09:42:34PM +0100, Jonathan de Boyne Pollard wrote: > > I think that login.conf is a step in the right direction, and I'm planning > > on making tools that support it. Or, rather, on making the tools that > > already support it on the BSDs also support it on Linux operating systems. > > > > * http://netbsd.gw.com/cgi-bin/man-cgi?login.conf > > > > * https://www.freebsd.org/cgi/man.cgi?query=login.conf > > > > * https://man.openbsd.org/login.conf > > > > * http://jdebp.eu./Softwares/nosh/guide/userenv-fromenv.html > > > > I already use them to set the GUI environment from login.conf on TrueOS. > > > > * https://unix.stackexchange.com/a/390089/5132 > > I have an extremely simple real-world litmus test which every system > I've ever seen so far has failed: > > How do I set MAIL=$HOME/Maildir/ in the login environment of every > user, regardless of their shell, or how they log in (console, ssh, > X Display Manager, GNOME Display Manager, etc.)? > > That's it. Simple, right? But login.conf can't do it. And pam_env.so > can't do it. They only allow static strings with no substitutions. > In fact I'm not aware of ANYTHING that can do it. > > The closest I've seen is sshd_config which uses %h and %u tokens in > some contexts, but only for specific sshd configuration parameters -- > not for setting environment variables. > > In the real world, today, the only solution is to duplicate that setting > in multiple places, so that (hopefully) every conceivable login method + > shell combination will pick up at least one of them.
A shotgun approach may work well for something like MAIL=$HOME/Maildir/ where you *always* want it set, and setting it again has no side-effects. But a more focussed approach is necessary when setting, say, PATH. Cheers, David.
