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Date:      Fri, 29 Oct 1999 21:24:10 -0700 (PDT)
From:      Alfred Perlstein <bright@wintelcom.net>
To:        Graeme Tait <graeme@echidna.com>
Cc:        "Jason C. Wells" <jcwells@u.washington.edu>, J McKitrick <jcm@dogma.freebsd-uk.eu.org>, freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG
Subject:   Re: stupid root/toor question...
Message-ID:  <Pine.BSF.4.05.9910292123110.12797-100000@fw.wintelcom.net>
In-Reply-To: <381A93BC.59BE@echidna.com>

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On Fri, 29 Oct 1999, Graeme Tait wrote:

> Jason C. Wells wrote:
> > 
> > On Fri, 29 Oct 1999, J McKitrick wrote:
> > 
> > >Looks like root IS toor.   <embarrassed>
> > >But why was everyone saying to use a different shell in toor and save sh
> > >for root in the event of problems?
> > 
> > Now for the gory details.
> > 
> > Bash is built with the use of shared libraries. The libraries are in
> > /usr/lib. Suppose /usr has a problem. You cannot mount /usr. You cannot
> > use bash. If root tries to use bash but bash will not work, then root
> > cannot login. Poof, you are locked out.
> 
> 
> Not so!
> 
> This might be a problem in other Unixes, but in FreeBSD, you can always boot 
> into single user mode, where sh is the default shell.

People have been known to overwrite /bin/sh with bash...  however
a little known factiod, you actually have another copy of sh available
in /stand should your /bin get hosed (*).

-Alfred

(*) it's a long story :)




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