"Remote" execution - is this possible?

"Remote" execution - is this possible?

[Helmut Jarausch]

Hi,

on a remote machine to which I have root access I'd like to
fix some environment setting for running zsh processes, i.e.

there are some xterms running zsh.

I'd like to achieve the effect as if a local user had entered
export BROWSER=firefox
in his xterm.

Is this possible?

Many thanks for a hint,
Helmut.

Re: "Remote" execution - is this possible?

[Benjamin R. Haskell]

On Thu, 31 Mar 2011, Helmut Jarausch wrote:

> Hi,
>
> on a remote machine to which I have root access I'd like to fix some 
> environment setting for running zsh processes, i.e.
>
> there are some xterms running zsh.
>
> I'd like to achieve the effect as if a local user had entered
> export BROWSER=firefox
> in his xterm.
>
> Is this possible?

No.  The environment in which a process starts is typically passed to 
the main routine.  You can't simply modify it after the program has 
started.

What are you trying to achieve with the 'export BROWSER=firefox'?

If you're calling some kind of URL-launcher (looks like something you'd 
need for `xdg-open` or such), you could modify the launcher to set that 
variable if none is passed in.

Even better, if your running zsh'es have something like ~/bin/ in their 
path, you could insert a wrapper program:

e.g. I have:

$ cat ~/bin/xdg-open
#!/bin/zsh
exec chromium -remote $argv

(In your case, sounds like you'd want 'firefox' where I have 'chromium')

Otherwise, let us know what you're trying to do, rather than how you 
want to accomplish it.

-- 
Best,
Ben