Date: Wed, 5 Jan 2000 23:03:58 +0100 (CET) From: Oliver Fromme <olli@dorifer.heim3.tu-clausthal.de> To: freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG Subject: Re: window manager question Message-ID: <200001052203.XAA37242@dorifer.heim3.tu-clausthal.de> In-Reply-To: <8507jl$1ov9$1@atlantis.rz.tu-clausthal.de>
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Mr. K. <bsd@inbox.org> wrote in list.freebsd-questions:
>> For the above reasons (and because of "good practice"), I never
>> change root's login shell. Instead, I use ``su -m'' (as a
>> normal user) to become root, which causes my root shell to be
>> the same as my normal user shell (which happens to be zsh).
>> In fact, my ``su'' is an alias for ``su -m''.
>>
> I just tried the su -m thing, and the strangest thing happened when I
> typed "pine", I got all my user messages, plus all the root messages
> combined. Is there any way to avoid this, or should I make sure I only
> check mail when doing a normal su?
I'd recommend not to read mail as root (I never do that).
Instead, put an alias into /etc/aliases that forwards root's
mail to all admins (or just to yourself if it's a private
box).
When you use ``su -m'', the environment variables are not
modified (see the su(1) manpage), including $USER, $LOGNAME,
$HOME, $MAIL... I guess this has confused your mail client.
(As a simple precaution against such confusion, I modify some
environment variables in my .zshrc if $EUID == 0.)
Regards
Oliver
--
Oliver Fromme, Leibnizstr. 18/61, 38678 Clausthal, Germany
(Info: finger userinfo:olli@dorifer.heim3.tu-clausthal.de)
"In jedem Stück Kohle wartet ein Diamant auf seine Geburt"
(Terry Pratchett)
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