Date: Sun, 24 May 1998 05:24:20 -0400 (EDT) From: CyberPeasant <djv@lucy.bedford.net> To: dwhite@resnet.uoregon.edu Cc: djv@bedford.net, freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG Subject: Re: /etc/crontab fishiness Message-ID: <199805240924.FAA04524@lucy.bedford.net> In-Reply-To: <Pine.BSF.3.96.980524004330.9142z-100000@gdi.uoregon.edu> from Doug White at "May 24, 98 00:44:08 am"
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Doug White wrote > On Fri, 22 May 1998, CyberPeasant wrote: > > > The crontab(5) man page asserts that variables declared in a crontab, > > such as > > > > HOME=/var/log > > > > in /etc/crontab will be passed to the commands executed. In the case > > at least of /etc/crontab executing the supplied /etc/weekly script, > > this is not the case. > > > > Place "echo $HOME" in that script, and see "/root", not the expected > > "/var/log". > > This is probably because the user's shell resets $HOME. Remember that the > task is run as the user. > > Doug White | University of Oregon > Internet: dwhite@resnet.uoregon.edu | Residence Networking Assistant > http://gladstone.uoregon.edu/~dwhite | Computer Science Major Doug, that is correct, thanks for pointing it out! In my case, root uses bash as default shell. (Note, this bash is not linked to sh.) The distributed .profile (also good for a root using /bin/sh), does in fact reset HOME. The distributed csh startup files for root do not do this, which explains why this complaint is not universal. I define HOME for root as a security measure anyway (probably a lame one, but I prefer to override umask, PATH and HOME in root's startups). Whoever wrote the default .profile for root seems to agree, (jkh?) (probably where I got the idea, anyway, long ago on another BSD version). A possible fix is to add the -p switch (suppressing sourcing of .profile) to the SHELL declaration in /etc/crontab. y.a. fix is the one I suggested originally, setting HOME in /etc/weekly. y.a. fix is to place some new code in /root/.profile to examine the incoming HOME from login, check it against a list of "OK" homes, (possibly /:/var/log:/root) and change it to /root if it is not in that list. Probably the simplest thing would be to add a comment at the head of /etc/weekly, advising of the problem. It's pesky to track down, and I see it occuring regularly enough to be a FAQ. Puzzle: man 5 crontab says in the EXAMPLE section: # use /bin/sh to run commands, no matter what /etc/passwd says SHELL=/bin/sh Why, if the default .profile sets root's HOME to /root, do csh using roots (whose csh is not actually invoked) /not/ see this problem? Dave -- --== Things that suck: PA vehicle inspections ==-- To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-questions" in the body of the message
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