Re: Running dosemu as a user

[Victor Warner <vwarner@waitrose.com>]

Peter, 
 
Thank you for the information. Your very helpful explanation pre-empted a 
question: that if I just add a PATH variable for /usr/local/bin whether I 
would overwrite any PATH variables. It seems clear that this will not 
happen. 
 
Also thank for providing: 
"~/.bash_profile (not .bashrc) file: 
 
        if ! echo "$PATH" | grep "/usr/local/bin"; then 
           PATH="$PATH:/usr/local/bin" 
        fi 
        export PATH" 
 
What you and Mike have written has put a lot of information in context.  
 
I have never heard of Rube Goldberg. But looking at his web site I can see 
the resemblance... 
 
Victor Warner 
 
 
 
 
On Tue, 03 Jan 2006 09:03 , Peter B. Steiger <wyo_wl001@bresnan.net> sent: 
 
>On Tue, 2006-01-03 at 14:42 +0000, Victor Warner wrote: 
>> However, Linspire does not store the PATH for a user in .profile 
or .bashrc  
>> files (where ever they are located).  
> 
>Victor, 
>Linspire can't put PATH anywhere that other Linux distros put it; under 
>all the fancy decorations it's still running the startup (SysV init) and 
>console shell (probably bash) as any other Linux. 
> 
>Adding to what Mike said, the dotted files (.profile and .bashrc) are 
>only used for changes each user might want to make personally to what 
>the system sets up for all users.  For example, the system might decree 
>that only /bin and /usr/bin are in the path, but you might want to 
>add /usr/local/bin to that path.  Fred might want his path to include 
>his personal directory (/home/fred/bin), and so on.  When Mike talks 
>about ~/.profile, the tilde is a shortcut that means "the /home 
>directory for the login you are currently using".  If you are root, ~ 
>is /root.  If you are rumplestiltskin, ~ is /home/rumplestiltskin.  So 
>each ~/.profile is different for each login. 
> 
>Now, when you first log in, three environment setting scripts are run in 
>this order: /etc/security/pam_env.conf (if they use pluggable 
>authentication modules for security, which they probably do), 
>then /etc/profile, then ~/.bash_profile.  The first two are run for 
>every user as soon as you log in, so even if you don't have 
>a .bash_profile or .profile or .bashrc in your home directory, you will 
>have the same basic path set that everyone has. 
> 
>So, if the default path does not include a path to the dosemu binary, 
>add this to your ~/.bash_profile (not .bashrc) file: 
> 
>        if ! echo "$PATH" | grep "/usr/local/bin"; then 
>           PATH="$PATH:/usr/local/bin" 
>        fi 
>        export PATH 
>         
>The "if" line ensures that if /usr/local/bin is already part of the 
>path, it won't get re-added every time the shell invokes another child 
>copy - with the result that your path would include /usr/local/bin 
>numerous times. 
> 
>Clear as mud? {grin} I spent several hours one day tracing through the 
>login and shell startup processes to see which scripts get invoked when, 
>and I finally have a pretty good idea of how it all works.  A flowchart 
>would resemble a Rube Goldberg illustration! 
> 
>Regarding Mike's instructions on how to examine the current PATH value 
>from a console shell:  I've been using DOS in some form for 25 years, so 
>I added aliases to mimic DOS commands: 
>alias path='echo $PATH' 
>alias ver='cat /proc/ver' 
>alias del='rm' 
>alias dir='ls' 
> 
>I also renamed my /etc/rc.d/init.d/functions file to config.sys, 
>and /etc/rc.d/rc.sysinit to autoexec.bat, but that's just because I have 
>a sick sense of humor. 
> 
>--  
>Peter B. Steiger 
>Cheyenne, WY 
> 
> 
 
 

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