Unable to set path in /etc/profile

[Ed Cogburn]

Lee Braiden wrote:

> On Sunday 24 July 2005 11:35, Magnus Therning wrote:
>> On Sat, Jul 23, 2005 at 07:54:14PM +0100, Lee Braiden wrote:
>> >I think you need to set the path in /etc/security/pam_env.conf
>>
>> Would it not be better to place that sort of thing in /etc/environment ?
>>
>> It just sounds wrong to mix in Java environment variables in something
>> named pam_env.conf.
> 
> Quite possibly.  Whenever I've used Java (rarely), I set it in a wrapper
> script personally.  But I was only suggesting setting PATH in
> pam_env.conf,
> where there is already a commented example of setting PATH.


Yes, the problem here is that the changes to login and pam are not being
synchronized with one another as they happen.  Setting PATH is available in
login.defs as well as pam_env or /etc/environment (which confusingly, is
*READ* by pam - so moving that stuff to the pam_env file will eliminate the
need for /etc/environment alltogether), but the former (login.defs) has a
little more intelligence to it (2 defs, one for root, one for everyone
else), yet I suspect that PATH will leave login.defs and will eventually be
set in pam_env.  Oh well, one of the pitfalls of incremental change. :(