zsh and login shells.

zsh and login shells.

[Larry P . Schrof]

Until I convince other admins at our site to put zsh in /etc/shells,
I'm running it out of my home directory.

I tried putting

[ -f ${HOME}/loc/bin/zsh ] && exec ${HOME}/loc/bin/zsh -l

in my .login (and made .login executable).

However, upon logging in, I simply get the ksh prompt, as if the
conditional statement evaluated to false.  When running this on the
command line, it works just fine.

I know the system ksh was reading my old .login file before I
moved it out of the way and put in the (simple) new one.

Any ideas?

- Larry

Re: zsh and login shells.

[Timothy J Luoma]

	Author:	"Larry P . Schrof" <schrof@cig.mot.com>
	Date:	Fri, 12 Feb 1999 15:22:16 -0600
	ID:	<199902122123.QAA05026@po_box.cig.mot.com>

> [ -f ${HOME}/loc/bin/zsh ] && exec ${HOME}/loc/bin/zsh -l
>
> in my .login (and made .login executable).
>
> However, upon logging in, I simply get the ksh prompt, as if the
> conditional statement evaluated to false.  When running this on the
> command line, it works just fine.
>
> I know the system ksh was reading my old .login file before I
> moved it out of the way and put in the (simple) new one.


What would happen when zsh starts and processes .login ?

Also, the condition should not be '-f', I would suggest something like this

check that it IS executable
	and NOT a directory
	and NOT a link

if [ -x ${HOME}/loc/bin/zsh \
-a ! -d ${HOME}/loc/bin/zsh \
-a ! -h ${HOME}/loc/bin/zsh ]; then

	exec ${HOME}/loc/bin/zsh -l
	
fi

I would try putting that in .kshrc or equivalent.
(on 2nd thought, that may not be ksh syntax)


Can you change your shell to /bin/sh and put the above in .profile and see  
if that works?

If you wanted to be more verbose:

if [ -x ${HOME}/loc/bin/zsh \
-a ! -d ${HOME}/loc/bin/zsh \
-a ! -h ${HOME}/loc/bin/zsh ]; then

	exec ${HOME}/loc/bin/zsh -l
	
else

	if [ -f ${HOME}/loc/bin/zsh ]; then
		echo ${HOME}/loc/bin/zsh exists
	
	else
		echo ${HOME}/loc/bin/zsh not found
		
	fi
	
	if [ -d ${HOME}/loc/bin/zsh ]; then
		echo ${HOME}/loc/bin/zsh is a directory
	fi
	
	if [ -h ${HOME}/loc/bin/zsh ]; then
		echo ${HOME}/loc/bin/zsh is a link
	fi
fi

Re: zsh and login shells.

[Bart Schaefer]

On Feb 12,  9:46pm, Timothy J Luoma wrote:
} Subject: Re: zsh and login shells.
}
} 	Author:	"Larry P . Schrof" <schrof@cig.mot.com>
} 	Date:	Fri, 12 Feb 1999 15:22:16 -0600
} 	ID:	<199902122123.QAA05026@po_box.cig.mot.com>
} 
} > I know the system ksh was reading my old .login file before I
} > moved it out of the way and put in the (simple) new one.

Something just occurred to me that hadn't earlier:

As ksh doesn't normally read a file named .login (it uses .profile), it
must be the case that the system /etc/profile is reading .login with the
"." command.  Is your .login writable by anyone other than yourself?
Perhaps /etc/profile tests that someone else couldn't have written into
your .login before it reads it?

} What would happen when zsh starts and processes .login ?

Zsh would only process .login if it were explicitly sourced.  The usual
file for zsh is .zlogin ...

} Also, the condition should not be '-f', I would suggest something like this
} 
} check that it IS executable
} 	and NOT a directory
} 	and NOT a link

and NOT writable by group/other ...

I'm not sure the "not a link" test is all that useful.  If somebody could
put a link in his loc/bin directory, they could also replace the entire
executable.

-- 
Bart Schaefer                                 Brass Lantern Enterprises
http://www.well.com/user/barts              http://www.brasslantern.com

Re: zsh and login shells.

[Larry P . Schrof]

> Zsh would only process .login if it were explicitly sourced.  The usual
> file for zsh is .zlogin ...

I was being dumb - I put into my .zprofile and everything was fine.

> I'm not sure the "not a link" test is all that useful.  If somebody could
> put a link in his loc/bin directory, they could also replace the entire
> executable.

The reason that I personally wouldn't use the link test is that I have
a link called -zsh pointing to the zsh binary in my home directory
software tree.  That way I can exec zsh and it shows up in the process
table as -zsh

- Larry (Thanks for the help)