Very Computer

I'm gradully migrating a slew of SunOS 4.x machines to Solaris 2.x here.
The system for user shell environment as implemented by my predecessors is
to have a a one-line ~/.{cshrc,login} for each user that says ``source
/usr/share/defaults/{cshrc,login}''.

I'm thinking that with the move to Solaris it might be opportune to take
advantage of the fact that tcsh automagically sources /etc/.cshrc and
/etc/.login to provide a default environment (path, etc).  However, many
users are csh users and the *y csh only sources the user's own dot
files, except /etc/.login, and then only if ~/.login does not exist.  This
is a serious problem for those who do have ~/.login files, as even with a
line in /etc/.login to source /etc/.cshrc, you won't see any of it.  This
is also true if you start up a non-login csh session (such as under CDE).

I don't want to force csh users to switch to tcsh, even though they might
like it better in the long run...

Anybody have any suggestions as to how to cleanly implement a default shell
environment for users?  To me, user dot files are customizations, I would
think a user should not HAVE to have *any* dot files in order to have a
workable environment.  But maybe I'm just making a mountain out of a
molehill.  Even so, I am curious as to how other people have solved this
``problem''.

Regards,
                Eric
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Eric D. Hendrickson              Computational Biology Centers/Medical School
Senior Analyst/Programmer           University of Minnesota, Twin Cities, USA
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: I don't want to force csh users to switch to tcsh, even though they might
: like it better in the long run...

: Anybody have any suggestions as to how to cleanly implement a default shell
: environment for users?  To me, user dot files are customizations, I would
: think a user should not HAVE to have *any* dot files in order to have a
: workable environment.  But maybe I'm just making a mountain out of a
: molehill.  Even so, I am curious as to how other people have solved this
: ``problem''.

I believe adding these lines to the begining of each user's .cshrc
file will do what you want:

# Run (source) the global shell startup if it has not yet been run
if (!($?gcshrc)) source /etc/csh.cshrc; unset gcshrc
# Individual user additions should be placed beyond this point.

the /etc/csh.cshrc file is the defaults file.  Here is the csh.cshrc file
on my system:

setenv MAIL /usr/spool/mail/$USER

set gcshrc=1
if ($?prompt) then
        set prompt = "% "
        set notify
        set history = 20
        limit coredumpsize 0
        alias pd pushd
        alias pop popd
        alias lo logout
        alias dir "ls -l"
        alias setpass passwd
        alias del "rm -i"
        alias vt52 "set term = vt52"
        alias vt100 "set term = vt100"
endif

Hope this helps...

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: >Anybody have any suggestions as to how to cleanly implement a default shell
: >environment for users?  To me, user dot files are customizations, I would
: >think a user should not HAVE to have *any* dot files in order to have a
: >workable environment.  But maybe I'm just making a mountain out of a
: >molehill.  Even so, I am curious as to how other people have solved this
: >``problem''.
: Maybe I don't understand the post properly. But you can specify what
: shell with Admintool, and have a set of pre-defined "." files
: available for installation into the users home directory with it as
: well, ie /etc/skel ? No?

Well, those dot files still don't effect existing users... I know in tcsh
you can modify your /etc/csh.cshrc file.  This file, theoretically, is
supposed to be a global scope for csh users.. but on my old SunOS system,
it is not.  I think the location, /etc/csh.cshrc is independant of platform
when you are using tcsh.

For my csh, I have made little "modules" with things like, autodetect DISPLAY,
and prompt settings... I put them in /share, and let users source them into
their .cshrc files... It is convenient for dealing with users who were hear
before me because I don't have to mess with their individual dot files.

Ken.

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