On Fri, Jul 10, 2026 at 03:55:02PM -0400, Todd Gruhn wrote:
So 'echo $SHELL' tells me that both accts are /bin/ksh
If I want a cool prompt (PS1) I need to do
'. ./.kshrc' . Why? Should this automatically be read
when I login??
You should check out the manual for these shells :)
ksh may use different startup files than sh(1), ksh(1) uses
~/.profile and depending on what is in .profile, it will read
~/.kshrc. IIRC ~/.shrc is used by sh(1)
HTH
On Fri, Jul 10, 2026 at 3:44?PM Todd Gruhn <[email protected]> wrote:
I thing I found a prob:
In /etc/shrc , there is a line that sets PS1 (I am hacking on that).
Is it possible to chance or remove that? Comment out?
I have PS1 set in .kshrc ...
On Fri, Jul 10, 2026 at 2:06?PM Steve Rikli <[email protected]> wrote:
>
> On Fri, Jul 10, 2026 at 12:15:38PM -0400, Todd Gruhn wrote:
> > I checked /etc/passwd :
> > root:*: . . .:/bin/ksh
>
> That indicates your root login is already using ksh, so that's the shell
> you'll be in if you su, eg.
>
> $ su
> Password:
> # echo $SHELL
> /bin/ksh
>
> > In /root ; dont have .ksh ; need to make that?
>
> You don't strictly need .kshrc just to use ksh; that file (and others)
> is used to customize the shell settings and behavior to your taste. Note
> that ksh will also source ~/.profile and the system-wide /etc/profile
> files. The man page can help explain the behavior.
>
> I haven't regularly used Ksh in quite a while but it's not hard to find
> docs and examples online about Ksh and .kshrc along with the default
> NetBSD ksh(1) man page.
>
> On Fri, Jul 10, 2026 at 12:17:53PM -0400, Todd Gruhn wrote:
> > IN /etc/passwd.BAK :
> > root:*: ... /bin/sh
> >
> > Did I mess this up?
>
> No. /etc/passwd.BAK is presumably a backup copy of /etc/passwd. It's not
> typically used in normal activity.
>
> If you didn't create it yourself you may want to compare them JIC, eg.
>
> diff /etc/passwd.BAK /etc/passwd
>
> If this is a system someone else setup, they may have simply made a copy
> before changing things.
>
>
> > On Thu, Jul 9, 2026 at 11:47?PM Steve Rikli <[email protected]> wrote:
> > > On Thu, Jul 09, 2026 at 10:44:04PM -0400, Todd Gruhn wrote:
> > > > So, I start NetBSD or su to root, I
> > > > need to do ' . ./.ksh'.
> > > >
> > > > Why cant I get /bin/ksh when I login?
> > > >
> > > > I found /etc/shrc. Does this have something
> > > > to do with this? Make a /etc/kshrc ?
> > >
> > > Are you saying you want to login or su as root and you want the shell
> > > to automatically be ksh?
> > >
> > > Before making any changes, you can check your system's root user shell
> > > by looking at root's line in /etc/passwd .
> > >
> > > $ grep ^root: /etc/passwd
> > > root:*:0:0:Charlie &:/root:/bin/sh
> > >
> > > If you really want to change this, one method is running the NetBSD
> > > 'sysinst' command as root, navigate to "Config menu", then "Root shell",
> > > and select the shell you prefer.
> > >
> > > There's no need to create /etc/kshrc to use ksh as a login shell, or
> > > to run it manually from the commandline.
> > >
> > > E.g. if you want to temporarily switch shells from the commandline, you
> > > should be able to simply type '/bin/ksh'.
--
[t]csh(1) - "An elegant shell, for a more... civilized age."
- Paraphrasing Star Wars
