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[Jerry Feldman]

On 05/11/2009 12:27 PM, Laura Conrad wrote:
> You can tell this system antedates X windows, can't you?
>
> Thanks to everyone.  I was hoping there was a magic word, the way there=

> is if you change your PATH, but I guess not.
>
> I have checked in a virtual tty, and it works the way I expect there.
>
> Meanwhile, the fiddling with the permissions of the directory seems to
> have broken the application.  This was a bad gumption trap; I have gone=

> and roasted and ground coffee beans and brewed coffee.  Maybe I will
> make more progress on redesigning my website after some coffee.
>
>  =20
Just to add to this a bit. To inherit these changes, you would need to=20
initiate a login shell. The way X works, is that it sets itself up to be =

the login "shell", and any process executed from X, is essentially a=20
subprocess or subshell. Executing a terminal window as a login shell=20
should work, just as the virtual terminals work. Additionally, you can=20
change the PATH variable, and that will be inherited by any child=20
process, but no by a peer. This is much different from Windows where=20
environment variables are truly global. MS-DOS and Windows borrowed a=20
number of things from Unix, but implemented them differently.
So, basically in Unix and Linux if you do something from within a=20
terminal windows, such as add new group, change PATH or any other=20
environment variable, it will ONLY effect the current shell and any=20
child processes, NEVER the parent or any peers.

--=20
Jerry Feldman <gaf-mNDKBlG2WHs at public.gmane.org>
Boston Linux and Unix
PGP key id: 537C5846
PGP Key fingerprint: 3D1B 8377 A3C0 A5F2 ECBB  CA3B 4607 4319 537C 5846