Environment variables (it was Re: Gridsphere deployment)

[Derek Broughton]

Leandro Doctors wrote:

> Am Di 19 Feb 2008 schrieb John DeCarlo:
>> Did you make sure that all environment variables are defined in places
>> where they will persist from one session to another?
> Nop. I have to re-define them at every login. Mmmmmmm
> 
> I've found this[0]:
> [...]
>> 5.4 Systemwide environment configuration
> [...]
>> There is NO DEFAULT WAY of setting the variables in Debian
> Is this also valid for (Debian-based) Ubuntu?

yes, but it doesn't mean that "there is no way to guarantee that variables
get propagated to all users".  It just means there are a few ways to do it,
none of which is "default".

> Where should I define the variables so they propagate and persist to all
> existing and future users?

/etc/profile
/etc/bash.bashrc

are analagous to your .profile and .bashrc files and get executed for all
users before their personal versions, and 

/etc/skel/.bashrc
/etc/skel/.profile

are the _initial_ .profile and .bashrc files that get copied to new users.
-- 
derek