Re: zsh 5.0.7

[Ray Andrews <rayandrews@eastlink.ca>]

On 10/11/2014 03:01 PM, Bart Schaefer wrote:
> On Oct 11,  2:46pm, Ray Andrews wrote:
> }
> } Ok, so what's the approved fix? In this particular install I have no
> } need to keep anything around that's not current, and of course I want
> } all roads to lead to 5.0.7. Should I just fiddle with the pointers?
>
> You have several choices.
>
> Firstly, you need to see if chsh will let you set your login shell to
> /usr/local/bin/zsh.  If it won't, you can either --
> 2. try editing the file /etc/shells to add /usr/local/bin/zsh and then
>     run chsh again, or

The horror: I got the dread: "PAM: Authentication failure". Tried to edit /etc/shells, no luck, tried to edit /etc/passwd and ended up being unable to log in at all.  Restored a backup.

> 1. find out which path actually is your login shell and link that path
>     to /usr/local/bin/zsh, or (if that would fluster your upgrades)
I ended up changing the 'zsh*' links in  '/etc/alternatives/' from 
'/bin/zsh5' to '/usr/local/bin/zsh'
and that seems to be working fine.

BTW, doing all of this as root.
> 3. set up your login shell init to "exec /usr/local/bin/zsh" in the
>     appropriate circumstances.
>
> See FAQ "I don't have root access: how do I make zsh my login shell?"
> for discussion of that last.
>
> Once you get zsh going as your login shell, you need to change the
> order of directories in the $path array to put /usr/local/bin near
> the front.  If you can't do that for some other reason, you're back
> to option (1) above.
I read something once that said '/usr/local/bin' should be at the end of 
the path.  It explained
how your system was in mortal peril otherwise.  Nevermind, I always 
thought it should come
first myself.
> You can also try to use your package manager to find out what installed
> /usr/bin/zsh{,5} and remove that package.  Once you have done so, you
> can rerun configure in your zsh build to set --exec-prefix=/usr and
> then rebuild and install, but it'd probably be wiser to get it running
> out of /usr/local if you can.
I see what you mean about not overwriting any packaged files, they are 
all different. I guess
that means I should now be able to purge zsh and Debian will just remove 
it's stuff, leaving
what I just installed alone.  But I'll make sure what I have now is 
stable, before I tinker
anymore.

Thanks Bart.