topic /etc/passwd Startup-Program in Operating System - HP-UX

/etc/passwd Startup-Program

Kong Kian Chay — Mon, 05 Mar 2001 15:16:19 GMT

Env : HP-UX 10.20, all users using /usr/bin/csh as start-up shell. NON-trusted system.

What is the syntax for the last field of the /etc/passwd (the Startup-Program) such that : it will execute a script e.g. /usr/local/file1.sh, & then specifiy that the User's startup shell is /usr/bin/csh ? The user should be shown the normal CDE Workspc after login.

Must "file1.sh" be a C-Shell script or can it be a POSIX shell script ?

Re: /etc/passwd Startup-Program

Patrick Wallek — Mon, 05 Mar 2001 15:30:04 GMT

What I would be tempted to do is leave the passwd file alone and put the script that you want to be executed in the users .cshrc file. That way you still get the benefit of the .cshrc file being sources and the environment being set up.

Re: /etc/passwd Startup-Program

James R. Ferguson — Mon, 05 Mar 2001 15:31:50 GMT

Hi:

Simply execute your script as the last line of your profile (.login) and leave /usr/bin/csh as the user's shell in /etc/passwd. The script you choose should have its shell interpreter specified in the heading, like:

#!usr/bin/sh #...for Posix...

Your script will run and when done, you will drop into the normal shell, in this case, your csh shell.

...JRF...

Re: /etc/passwd Startup-Program

Jacques Simon — Tue, 06 Mar 2001 07:13:48 GMT

I think the "shell" specified in /etc/passwd must be a codefile (compiled program), and cannot be a script. You can just use a little C-program that starts you file1.sh:
main() {
#include

(void) setuid((uid_t) 0);
execlp("file1.sh", "file1.sh", (char *)0
);
}
(if necessary use absolute path to file1.sh)
Jacques

Re: /etc/passwd Startup-Program

Tommy Palo — Tue, 06 Mar 2001 07:38:10 GMT

If you replace /usr/bin/csh in /etc/passwd with /usr/local/file1.sh it could look like:

#!/usr/bin/csh
.
.
/usr/bin/csh

Re: /etc/passwd Startup-Program

Bruce Regittko_1 — Tue, 06 Mar 2001 18:59:44 GMT

Hi,

The startup file in /etc/passwd can be a script. I would use

exec /usr/bin/csh

as the last line, if you must execute the script first. As has been pointed out, though, it will probably be better to execute the script from the user's .login file.

If you replace /usr/bin/csh with another script in /etc/passwd, you may consider creating/updating /etc/shells or else the user may not be able to access his/her account via ftp.

--Bruce

Re: /etc/passwd Startup-Program

Kong Kian Chay — Wed, 07 Mar 2001 09:15:34 GMT

Thanks for all the suggestions. I will listen to all the expert advice & refrain from playing around with the start-up shell for /etc/passwd.