trying to give su the proper path access while in a bash shell from a user account...my profile in /etc says:
PS1="${USER}@${HOSTNAME}>"
umask 0022
PATH=/bin:/usr/bin:/sbin:/usr/sbin:/usr/local/bin:/usr/local/sbin:/usr/X11R6/bin:/usr/local/kde/bin:/usr/local/qt/bin:/usr/local/jdk/bin
export PS1 PATH HISTSIZE QTDIR KDEDIR LS_COLORS QT_XFT TERM

The .bash profile in the user account I need su path properly set up in says:
# User specific environment and startup programs

PATH=$PATH:$HOME/bin

export PATH
unset USERNAME

Curently, when su as root within a user account there seems to be no path setup for root.
Any suggestions on how to correct this are appriciated!

When you su, you need to add the - at the end:
su -

This adds the path variable as well AFAIK.

Cool

ah, thanks much!

You're welcome

Master C,

Thanks for posting the answer, but for the record, how do I actuall edit the path? How exactly do you change the path variable? On this line of the .bash_profile file:

PATH=$PATH:$HOME/bin

because when I type $PATH at the command line, it gives me a MUCH longer path, I'm sure you know what I'm talking about, and I can find that path nowhere in the NHF file on editing your bash_profile. The NHF alludes to the fact that you need to change these files to get it done but never actually covers it. I even tried $PATH at the command line as well, and typing 'export' and then my new path - this was the advice of my dense buddies - but nothing worked. Your post answered my question and for grins I checked the man page for su, and there it is in black and yellow:

"A mere '-' implies -l. If no $USER is given, assume root"

Amazing things those man pages, but they never make much sense till someone explains them to you.

Well it's different on each distro it seems. On my Slack system all I do is edit /etc/profile There is an obvious line in there that I add the new entry to. On other systems it appears to be in /etc/profile.d You also can do the bash_profile deal, but I do believe that would only work if you are using bash, which to me isn't a great way to edit something.

I don't normally have a great need to add/remove from my default path variable all that often, so if I point someone towards a way to do it (on either Mandrake or RH) I usually point towards this how-to:
http://www.mandrakeuser.org/docs/utils/ujava.html

Also, you might get something out of this amazingly long thread:
http://www.linuxquestions.org/questi...threadid=33091

Anyway, to make this long story short, I don't know. However, many people on this site do, and a search might reveal quite a bit.



Cool