Re: Named directory pointing to a symbolic link

[Lloyd Zusman <ljz@asfast.com>]

Bart Schaefer <schaefer@brasslantern.com> writes:

> On Oct 24,  1:04pm, Jean Chalard wrote:
> }
> } I've run into a behaviour I wasn't expecting with named directories on
> } FreeBSD.  [...]
> } 
> } It seems to me like the 'www' variable (which ought to be unset when I
> } start the shell, it's not like it should be a special variable [...]
> } 
> } I can reproduce it on another FreeBSD where zsh is installed the
> } vanilla way and where I don't have any configuration files.
>
> The most obvious answer is that there really is a user named "www";
> perhaps the dummy user that runs the apache httpd or some such.  Have
> you tried
> 	grep www /etc/passwd
> ??

This is almost certainly what's going on in your case, Jean.  On my
FreeBSD host, the default configuration for user ID's with no HOME
directory is to have the string "/nonexistent" in the "home_dir" field
of /etc/passwd.  For no login shell, the string "/nonexistent" goes into
the "shell" field.  To wit:

  % grep /nonexistent /etcpasswd
  ftp:*:14:5:Anonymous FTP Admin:/home/services/ftp:/nonexistent
  pop:*:68:6:Post Office Owner:/nonexistent:/sbin/nologin
  nobody:*:65534:65534:Unprivileged user:/nonexistent:/sbin/nologin

I wouldn't be surprised if the "www" user also has a "/nonexistent" HOME
in the default FreeBSD setup (I had manually changed my "www" user ages
ago).


-- 
 Lloyd Zusman
 ljz@asfast.com
 God bless you.