From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 Return-Path: Received: (qmail 28581 invoked from network); 5 Sep 2006 18:31:45 -0000 X-Spam-Checker-Version: SpamAssassin 3.1.4 (2006-07-25) on f.primenet.com.au X-Spam-Level: X-Spam-Status: No, score=-2.5 required=5.0 tests=AWL,BAYES_00, FORGED_RCVD_HELO autolearn=ham version=3.1.4 Received: from news.dotsrc.org (HELO a.mx.sunsite.dk) (130.225.247.88) by ns1.primenet.com.au with SMTP; 5 Sep 2006 18:31:45 -0000 Received-SPF: none (ns1.primenet.com.au: domain at sunsite.dk does not designate permitted sender hosts) Received: (qmail 45235 invoked from network); 5 Sep 2006 18:31:38 -0000 Received: from sunsite.dk (130.225.247.90) by a.mx.sunsite.dk with SMTP; 5 Sep 2006 18:31:38 -0000 Received: (qmail 18617 invoked by alias); 5 Sep 2006 18:31:29 -0000 Mailing-List: contact zsh-users-help@sunsite.dk; run by ezmlm Precedence: bulk X-No-Archive: yes X-Seq: 10682 Received: (qmail 18606 invoked from network); 5 Sep 2006 18:31:28 -0000 Received: from news.dotsrc.org (HELO a.mx.sunsite.dk) (130.225.247.88) by sunsite.dk with SMTP; 5 Sep 2006 18:31:28 -0000 Received: (qmail 43890 invoked from network); 5 Sep 2006 18:31:28 -0000 Received: from shu.cs.utk.edu (160.36.56.39) by a.mx.sunsite.dk with SMTP; 5 Sep 2006 18:31:26 -0000 Received: from localhost (localhost [127.0.0.1]) by shu.cs.utk.edu (Postfix) with ESMTP id CE14B56472 for ; Tue, 5 Sep 2006 14:30:34 -0400 (EDT) X-Virus-Scanned: by amavisd-new with ClamAV and SpamAssasin at cs.utk.edu Received: from shu.cs.utk.edu ([127.0.0.1]) by localhost (shu.cs.utk.edu [127.0.0.1]) (amavisd-new, port 10024) with ESMTP id R-C4N3rwKwtb for ; Tue, 5 Sep 2006 14:30:30 -0400 (EDT) Received: from cetus30.cs.utk.edu (cetus30.cs.utk.edu [160.36.56.112]) by shu.cs.utk.edu (Postfix) with ESMTP id C82D85646A for ; Tue, 5 Sep 2006 14:30:30 -0400 (EDT) Received: by cetus30.cs.utk.edu (Postfix, from userid 10605) id 2713A13B60; Tue, 5 Sep 2006 14:31:21 -0400 (EDT) Date: Tue, 5 Sep 2006 14:31:20 -0400 From: Chris Johnson To: zsh-users@sunsite.dk Subject: Where PATH is set Message-ID: <20060905183120.GA10848@cetus30.cs.utk.edu> Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Disposition: inline User-Agent: Mutt/1.5.9i I have a political question I could use some help on. My system administrators currently set PATH in /etc/zshrc. The assignment is literal; no existing value is checked for. They assign the exact same thing to PATH in /etc/zshenv so that "ssh machine command" will work the same way. This setup forces me to similarly assign PATH twice, once in ~/.zshenv and once in ~/.zshrc. My changes to PATH in ~/.zshenv are overwritten by the system's /etc/zshrc. But I want PATH to contain the same directories whether the shell is interactive or not. So, I need to assign to PATH again in ~/.zshrc. I think this is a horrible setup, a trap for inconsistencies just waiting to snare users, but the sysadmins think its a non-issue. Peter has some lines in the zsh Guide, section 2.5.10, about how zshenv is the cleanest place to set environment variables, PATH included. I've pointed this out to my sysadmins, but they are looking for further documentation and recommendation of this practice. Does anyone have any input that I could send their way? I suppose you could disagree with me if you wanted to, but I won't forward that along to them. -- Chris Johnson cjohnson@cs.utk.edu http://www.cs.utk.edu/~cjohnson