[2356] in SIPB_Linux_Development
Re: Feeling brave? Log into snork.
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (mhpower@MIT.EDU)
Mon Jan 4 00:42:10 1999
From: mhpower@MIT.EDU
Date: Mon, 4 Jan 1999 00:41:57 -0500
To: amu@MIT.EDU
Cc: linux-dev@MIT.EDU, nathanw@MIT.EDU, jweiss@MIT.EDU
In-Reply-To: "[2352] in SIPB_Linux_Development"
>[Hmm. attachandrun should have used ATHENA_SYS_COMPAT to find
>/mit/help/arch/i386_linux1/bin. mhpower, do your dotfiles set
>ATHENA_SYS_COMPAT to the output of `machtype -C' on Linux?
I don't think the question is relevant in that during my login session
on snork none of my processes had access to read my dotfiles. In any
case, ATHENA_SYS_COMPAT was not set. (I logged in without putting
tickets on snork, via "rlogin -x", and my shell is /bin/athena/tcsh)
Anyway, I don't think it's a good idea for a standard documentation
resource such as the "help" or "olc_answers" command to function
correctly only if the user logged in using appropriate dotfiles. As an
example, maybe the reason the user is typing "help" is that he deleted
all of his dotfiles. I understand that /mit/help/arch/i386_linux3 now
exists, but perhaps in general ATHENA_SYS_COMPAT ought to be changed
to an opt-out arrangement? In other words, ATHENA_SYS_COMPAT would be
set by the login programs, or by /etc/csh.cshrc and /etc/profile, and
if a user did not want ATHENA_SYS_COMPAT they could change their own
dotfiles to make that the case.
Matt
