Re: telnet logins

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Date: Tue, 11 Jan 2005 18:05:47 GMT

Randy <yates@ieee.org> wrote:
>> > path when the source of login is via telnet.
>>
>> But with telnet, you don't have any display.

> Wrong. I have an x-display server running on my pc.

I didn't imply that you didn't, only that it's not usable by default
with a simple telnet command (because it doesn't pass the DISPLAY).

>> So you're already having
>> to set up your DISPLAY variable.

> You mean interactively? Maybe. Then again maybe I've created a login
> script segment that automatically extracts it from my session info and
> assigns DISPLAY.

If you or your administrator can set that up, then having that script
add the proper directory to your PATH also shouldn't be difficult.

>> If you can do that, you can add the
>> path to the X clients, right?

> I can rewrite the solaris operating system instead of using what's
> already available too. Does that mean I should do it?

Setting a default path for users is certainly one of the more common
things that I would expect to do on systems I administer. I wouldn't
put it on a level of rewriting an operating system.

> Consider the following scenarios:

> 1. I'm at home on the pc. I remotely telnet (or ssh - I get the same
> problem in having an incomplete path either way) to my machine at
> work so that I don't have any other access to my unix machine. Now
> I want to start an xterm. Where were those darned binaries? Let's
> see - /home/... - no. /apps/... - no. /usr/bin - no. /usr/X - no.
> etc., etc., etc.

Yup. Multiplicity of standards for UNIX systems in general is annoying.
If that's common, the administrator should add them to the default
path. Of course since this is Solaris, I'd start with /usr/openwin/bin.

> 2. I memorized my x-client path to be /abc/xyz. The sysadmin changes
> things and doesn't bother to tell me (nor should he/she need to).
> Next time I login it's not where I expected it. Goto scenario 1.

Then the administrator should have changed the default path when they
changed "things".

>> If you use ssh with X forwarding, not only do you prevent clear text
>> over the wire, you automatically set up (an encrypted) DISPLAY and a
>> proper PATH.
>>
>> > If this startup behavior for telnet logins is conventional, then
> how do
>> > folks typically start xclients on a remote machine? It seems
>> > unreasonable to require people to know where these applications are
>> > kept (i.e., in order to specify a fully-qualified path to the
>> > x-clients).
>>
>> So change your default PATH.

> That's a hack. See scenario 2 above. The proper thing to do is
> set it up in the system login files, is it not? If not, why not?

It's not a hack, it's a configuration. I meant it from the point of
view of the administrator, not the end user.

There are many useful tools that aren't in the default PATH (/usr/sbin,
/usr/ccs/bin, and /usr/openwin/bin among them). Add them if you want.

I would expect /usr/bin to be the only directory in the default path for
users unless modified by an administrator.

-- 
Darren Dunham                                           ddunham@taos.com
Senior Technical Consultant         TAOS            http://www.taos.com/
Got some Dr Pepper?                           San Francisco, CA bay area
         < This line left intentionally blank to confuse you. >

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