From owner-freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG Sat Dec 1 04:44:29 2007 Return-Path: Delivered-To: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org Received: from mx1.freebsd.org (mx1.freebsd.org [IPv6:2001:4f8:fff6::34]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id E1E7816A41B for ; Sat, 1 Dec 2007 04:44:29 +0000 (UTC) (envelope-from freebsd001@freeode.co.uk) Received: from mail.freeode.co.uk (mail.freeode.co.uk [87.127.24.125]) by mx1.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 64C6913C447 for ; Sat, 1 Dec 2007 04:44:28 +0000 (UTC) (envelope-from freebsd001@freeode.co.uk) Received: from asus.freeode.co.uk ([10.10.10.10]) by mail.freeode.co.uk (8.13.6/8.13.6) with ESMTP id lB14iRRU062923 for ; Sat, 1 Dec 2007 04:44:27 GMT (envelope-from freebsd001@freeode.co.uk) Date: Sat, 1 Dec 2007 04:44:27 +0000 From: John Murphy To: "freebsd-questions@freebsd.org" Message-ID: <20071201044427.38bd2c84@asus.freeode.co.uk> X-Mailer: Claws Mail 3.0.2 (GTK+ 2.12.1; i386-portbld-freebsd7.0) Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=US-ASCII Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Subject: What's the point of the shell choice in single user mode? X-BeenThere: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.5 Precedence: list List-Id: User questions List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , X-List-Received-Date: Sat, 01 Dec 2007 04:44:30 -0000 I've just successfully done the world and kernel upgrade from 7 beta2 to beta3. I've always had a mergemaster phobia, but it didn't seem too bad this time. I thought I'd broken it after choosing /bin/tcsh as my shell in single user mode. It grumbled about termcap (I think) and then gave me a "simple shell" with a % prompt. fsck and mount were unknown commands and even though I could change directory to /usr or /home they were (apparently) empty! Scary! I now realise it was because they were not mounted of course. I'll know to always accept the suggested /bin/sh in future, but I was wondering if the only reason a choice of a different shell is offered is to scare the unwary. -- Thanks, John.