Alexander K. Hansen wrote:
On 1/13/06, david <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
Why does Fink recommend that I set the path in files that only are read
when I do an interactive login?
I have installed, for example, fink's rsync but if I use the default
setup for fink the rsync included in Mac OS X is used for
non-interactive sessions rather than the fink version.
What examples of "non-interactive sessions" do you have in mind? I don't
even know what this is, "session" sounds pretty interactive to me.
Anyway, the distinction is not between interactive and non-interactive,
but between login and non-login shells. Interactive/non-interactive
concerns the question whether stdin and stdout are connected to
terminals. Login/non-login concerns the question of reading startup
scripts. PATH is usually set in a login shell, and /sw/bin/init.sh is
sourced in login shells.
Why is it setup like this? It doesn't make sense in my eyes.
Googling didn't come up with an explanation so I appreciate any input.
Good question. I don't know the answer. ;-) I actually set my
environment in .bashrc, so that non-interactive operations (e.g.
X11.app) know about it.
Since when is X11.app non-interactive? The fact that Apple ships it with
a bad configuration and it doesn't read the right startup files is
perhaps a reason to try some ugly hacks, but it shouldn't be a reason to
obliterate the distinction between login and non-login shells in
general. Or between interactive and non-interactive shells, for that
matter: As "man bash" explains, ~/.bashrc is read by *interactive*
shells that are not login shells. If you start a non-interactive,
non-login shell, then by default *no* startup script is read at all.
This has been discussed many times, and I know that some people are not
convinced, but I still think it is wrong to source /sw/bin/init.sh
automatically in every subshell. After all, you start your subshell
always inside an interactive environment, and environment variables like
PATH are meant to be transmitted to subshells, so it is sufficient to
run /sw/bin/init.sh once at startup (hence "login") of the interactive
environment in which your non-login shell is started. If you need a
different environment in your subshell, then define it there.
--
Martin
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