Modifying root's environmental path

[Andrew Kaplan]

The root user on one of our 10.20 machines is using the sh shell. I wanted to modify the PATH in order to accomodate a program that was install in the /opt/vnc directory. Vnc is the name of the program. I went to the .profile file and modified the .PATH statement to include the path to the application directory. After logging out and logging back into the system, I attempted to start the application but got an error which said a particular file was not found in my path statement. When I did an echo $PATH, the directory was not listed. What did I miss? Thanks.

[Leif Halvarsson_2]

Hi,
Do you use CDE ? In this case you must use the .dtprofile for enviroment settings or (in this file) uncomment the line
# DTSOURCEPROFILE=true

[Sridhar Bhaskarla]

Hi,

Dot in the .profile and see if it works.

#cd
#. ./.profile
#echo $PATH

If you are using CDE, you will need to make sure that, in $HOME/.dtprofile the line "DTSOURCEPROFILE=true" is uncommented.
Keep a file called $HOME/.Xdefaults that has the line "dtterm*loginShell: True".

-Sri

[Andrew Kaplan]

Hi there,

Yes...CDE is used as our GUI desktop. If I understand you correctly, the PATH statement in .dtprofile should be modified accordingly, and the last line in the file should be uncommented. Is that correct?

[harry d brown jr]

Check the home of root's .profile:

login as root
cd
grep -i PATH .profile

and

grep -i PATH /etc/profile

live free or die
harry

[Sridhar Bhaskarla]

No. You don't specify PATH statement in .dtprofile. You enable .profile to run through .dtprofile. YOu will need to make sure you have .Xdefaults file as I mentioned before.

-Sri

[Shannon Petry]

You can also add the directory to /etc/PATH, /etc/profile, and for C-Shell, /etc/csh.login. All of these will give a global definition.

With root though, I change the paths in /.profile, and /.cshrc for cshell. I have no problems in CDE with this, even though I dont uncomment the line in .dtprofile. At initial login, your defaults are read, just not each consecuative shell afterwards.

Regards,
Shannon

[James R. Ferguson]

Hi Andrew:

Adding additional levels to the PATH variable is sometimes appropriate. Make sure that you keep the most likely directories to contain the desired object at the front of the PATH for optimal search times.

In some cases, it is just as appropriate to code (or force the use of) an absolute path in a script or command line.

Regards!

...JRF...