Summary of why csh doesn't work for root login

Bruce Himebaugh bruce at ACT.UUCP
Fri Oct 12 07:04:39 AEST 1990


A while ago I posted an article asking people for help on why csh would not
work as the shell for the root login.  This article simply summarizes the
responses I got.

The original article I posted was something to this effect:

    At work we have a 386 system (used for accounting) running SCO Unix.  I
    changed the shell for root (in the /etc/passwd file), from '/bin/sh' to
    '/bin/csh'.  Boy did this cause problems.  Everything works fine, until you
    reboot the system.  While the system is coming up (e.g. starting cron,
    print services, etc.) it starts displaying the /etc/motd (i.e. message of
    the day) file.  It also trashes the /etc/mnttab file and /etc/systemid
    file.

Summary of responses:

    1.  It is a documented bug in SCO Unix Version 0.  It is suppose to be
	fixed in a future release.

    2.  A couple people suggested making two root logins, like:

	    root:*:0:0:Superuser:/:/bin/sh
	    cshroot:*:0:0:Superuser:/:/bin/csh

That really sums it up.  Thank you for all the responses.

Bruce
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Bruce Himebaugh             A.C.T. Consulting, Inc.         Voice: 216-455-1444
   PATHS: uunet!{ncoast,aablue}!fmsystm!mrsmouse!bmhalh!ACT!bruce
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