rcmain

rcmain

[Byron Rakitzis]

I think /usr/lib/rcmain is wrong for 2 reasons:

1) I don't think the sysadmin should have control over what the user's
shell does at startup. I have had logins on too many systems which
print long and useless /etc/motd's and other garbage, or insist on
setting the terminal a particular way, etc. etc.

2) I don't want rc to open a file every time it starts up. I may use
use rc functions, but I also use a LOT of shell scripts, and I don't
want to have to deal with the whole "csh -f" issue, etc. ad nauseam.

Opening a file every time rc starts may be good for plan9 where they
presumably cache files very effectively, but this is just not the case
on a lot of Unix systems.

As Boyd said, let's keep the shell stable. I am frankly getting quite
tired of maintaining rc these days, and there's nothing I'd love more
than to be able to release version 1.1. Before that happens there are
2 or 3 moderately big/important things that need to be done to rc, but
after that has happened, I would really like to set this program in
clay, if not in stone.