I started off teaching myself linux using RedHat 9.0 and became familiar using Tomcat and Postgres to run a web-based employment system for a school project. I have since moved on to Slackware (If Nautilus crashed one more time, I was going to hurt someone) and found it to be much more enjoyable than DeadRat. But I have just one little problem. I have installed both Tomcat and Postgres successfully on Slackware, but I am having troubles using my environmental variables. Here is a what my /etc/profile looks like:

# /etc/profile: This file contains system-wide defaults used by
# all Bourne (and related) shells.

# Set the values for some environment variables:
export MINICOM="-c on"
export MANPATH=/usr/local/man:/usr/man:/usr/X11R6/man
export HOSTNAME="`cat /etc/HOSTNAME`"
export LESSOPEN="|lesspipe.sh %s"
export LESS="-M"

# If the user doesn't have a .inputrc, use the one in /etc.
if [ ! -r "$HOME/.inputrc" ]; then
export INPUTRC=/etc/inputrc
fi

# Set the default system $PATH:
PATH="/usr/local/bin:/usr/bin:/bin:/usr/X11R6/bin:/usr/games"

# For root users, ensure that /usr/local/sbin, /usr/sbin, and /sbin are in
# the $PATH. Some means of connection don't add these by default (sshd comes
# to mind).
if [ "`id -u`" = "0" ]; then
echo $PATH | grep /usr/local/sbin 1> /dev/null 2> /dev/null
if [ ! $? = 0 ]; then
PATH=/usr/local/sbin:/usr/sbin:/sbin:$PATH
fi
fi

# I had problems using 'eval tset' instead of 'TERM=', but you might want to
# try it anyway. I think with the right /etc/termcap it would work great.
# eval `tset -sQ "$TERM"`
if [ "$TERM" = "" -o "$TERM" = "unknown" ]; then
TERM=linux
fi

# Set ksh93 visual editing mode:
if [ "$SHELL" = "/bin/ksh" ]; then
VISUAL=emacs
# VISUAL=gmacs
# VISUAL=vi
fi

# Set a default shell prompt:
#PS1='`hostname`:`pwd`# '
if [ "$SHELL" = "/bin/pdksh" ]; then
PS1='! $ '
elif [ "$SHELL" = "/bin/ksh" ]; then
PS1='! ${PWD/#$HOME/~}$ '
elif [ "$SHELL" = "/bin/zsh" ]; then
PS1='%n@%m:%~%# '
elif [ "$SHELL" = "/bin/ash" ]; then
PS1='$ '
else
PS1='\u@\h:\w\$ '
fi
PS2='> '
export PATH DISPLAY LESS TERM PS1 PS2

# Default umask. A umask of 022 prevents new files from being created group
# and world writable.
umask 022

# Set up the LS_COLORS and LS_OPTIONS environment variables for color ls:
if [ "$SHELL" = "/bin/zsh" ]; then
eval `dircolors -z`
elif [ "$SHELL" = "/bin/ash" ]; then
eval `dircolors -s`
else
eval `dircolors -b`
fi

# Notify user of incoming mail. This can be overridden in the user's
# local startup file (~/.bash.login or whatever, depending on the shell)
if [ -x /usr/bin/biff ]; then
biff y
fi

# Append any additional sh scripts found in /etc/profile.d/:
for profile_script in /etc/profile.d/*.sh ; do
if [ -x $profile_script ]; then
. $profile_script
fi
done
unset profile_script

# For non-root users, add the current directory to the search path:
if [ ! "`id -u`" = "0" ]; then
PATH="$PATH:."
fi

#>>> ALL OF THESE WERE SET BY ME <<<

export JAVA_HOME="/usr/local/jdk1.5.0_01"
export ANT_HOME="/usr/local/apache-ant-1.6.2"
export PATH=${PATH}:${ANT_HOME}/bin
export PGDATA="/usr/local/pgsql/data"
export PATH=${PATH}:/usr/local/pgsql/bin
export CATALINA_HOME="/usr/local/jakarta-tomcat-5.5.4"

The variables I am most conerned with are the ones listed just above here. I have added these variables by editing /etc/profile as root (since this is my only privileged user). I have since created two new users "Tim" and "postgres". PostGreSQL requires it's own user to run the daemon and needs access to the PGDATA and JAVA_HOME variables. However, when I log in to the system as "Tim" and then "su" to "postgres" to start the PostGreSQL daemon, the variables are not available to me. In fact, not even the $PATH variable is the same (it is missing the appended directories above). But if I log in as root and "su" to "Tim" or "postgres" then all of the environmental variables are set properly.

This is something I did not encounter using RedHat 9.0 since I only had to edit the /etc/profile using root and then all variables were accessible by all users even if I didn't log in as root first.

Any help is greatly appreciated. I have rather enjoyed learning to use Linux and find myself spending more time using my Linux machine than I do my three other windows machines.

per man su have you tried "su - postgres"

If I use, "su postgres" while I am logged in as root it works just fine. But I don't want to be logged in as root all the time.

no i mean from your user type "su - postgres"

ah, ok. Well, I tried that as well and I didn't know the password for "postgres" so I created a new one for it. Though whenever I am logged in under my user and do the "su postgres" the variables still aren't there.

When I log in as my user and do "su postgres", echo $PATH returns /usr/local/bin etcetera but it doesn't contain the additional ${ANT_HOME}/bin.

are you typing "su postgres" or "su - postrgres"

I was typing "su postgres". If I type "su -postgres" I get "sorry" even if I put in the correct password. However, if I log in to the system as the user "postgres" then all of the environmental variables work fine. What is the significance of the "-" before the username when using "su"?

su - tells it to use the new environment

from man su : - make this a login shell

did you type su -postgres
or su - postgres

su -postgres gives me "sorry."

su - postgres gives me "/dev/tty1 operation not permitted."

Try su postgres -

"su postgres -" let's me switch to the user "postgres" but the variables still aren't coming through. $PATH does not contain the appended directories listed in /etc/profile. However, they do exist for the user "Tim" which I log in as.

Try typing source /etc/profile & if that helps you can add it to .bashrc for the user ( /home/postgres/.bashrc )

should I be logged in as root or postgres when I use the "source /etc/profile"?

All source /etc/profile , does is that i reads the /etc/profile as the curretn user & initialises / sets the appropriate environment variables. Since you're not seeing the environment variables as postgres, you should type source /etc/profile when you're logged on as postgres. If you get the variables to appear then you should add source /etc/profile to your .bashrc in the home directory of postgres.

To add it to your home directory log on as postgres & type echo source /etc/profile >>.bashrc & hopefully it should work