TIMEZONE misfeature in /etc/init
Amos Shapir
amos at taux01.UUCP
Mon Jun 20 19:25:50 AEST 1988
The problem:
In release 3.1, /etc/init sometimes fails mysteriously when trying to
run commands in /etc/inittab.
The cause:
/etc/init reads /etc/TIMEZONE to get the environment variables for
commands. Instead of letting a /bin/sh do it, it builds the environment
pointers by looking for an '=' character in each line, then using
everything to the left of it as the variable name, and everything on its
right as the value.
This is primitive and kludgey, since it puts in the environment
variables which were not exported, and even things that are not
variables at all - mainly comments that happen to contain '='. A bad
envp list may crash a shell.
The Solution:
Until release 4.0 comes along, do not keep anything except TZ=timezone
in your /etc/TIMEZONE; pay extra attention to '=' characters in
comments.
--
Amos Shapir (My other cpu is a NS32532)
National Semiconductor (Israel)
6 Maskit st. P.O.B. 3007, Herzlia 46104, Israel Tel. +972 52 522261
amos%taux01 at nsc.com 34 48 E / 32 10 N
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