Global profiles in HPUX11.11

[Jim Adamson]

Hi,
I have just upgraded (cold installed) a workstation from HPUX1020 CDE to HPUX11.11 with CDE. My query regards the use of /etc/profile, .dtprofile and .profile. On the HPUX1020 systems a profile was globally set via /etc/profile with very little in a users .profile.

I was searching for a way of copying this to HPUX11.11 so we have one global profile file for both terminal and CDE logins. I came across a method via http://forums.itrc.hp.com/cm/QuestionAnswer/1,,0x13647d4cf554d611abdb0090277a778c,00.html whereby you add '*loginShell: True' to etc/dt/config/C/sys.resources and $HOME/.Xdefaults. This seems to work well though the terminal starts like a login terminal. CDE appears to work normally. At my site we have some users who access HPUX via Exceed, some use Xterms while a few have their own workstations - so I am looking for a global solution that causes minimal disruption.

Before I upgrade the rest of our workstations I am looking for some advice/reassurance as to whether using this method is OK and has no hidden pitfalls. Would it be better to have one global /etc/profile and one global .dtprofile?

I have plenty other questions about HPUX11.11 but I'll save them for later.
thanks,
Jim Adamson

[Alex Glennie]

I think it should be OK ... CDE upon user login sources a users .profile once by default - this is for the CDE session as a whole however, each terminal session dtterm ,xterm etc starts a new shell and so needs to be started using -ls or the loginShell resource for the .profile to be read. As in the post you listed problems can occur if users start su'ing to other users expecting variables etc to be automatically picked up.

Regardless of what h/w or s/w emulation they use to access CDE this is always true.

I use the loginShell and have not experienced any problems.

So your method should be water tight .... I'd also avoid setting variables in .dtprofile since it's not necessary with the loginShell resource set.

[Jim Adamson]

Thanks Alex I'll give it a go. Apart from the terminal startup looking a bit different (the login bit) it seems to work very well.
Jim