On Sat, Nov 29, 2008 at 08:46:00AM +0000, Dieter wrote:
>
> What is wrong with bash as shell for root?
> (Assuming bash is in /bin and statically linked.)
>
all talk of why or why not misses one highly held best practice
for system management, no matter what the OS.
never change the default root shell.
learn to use the "exec" builtin:
$ sudo su -
Password:
Terminal type? [xterm]
# exec bash
#
now for this login session your interactive shell is bash, and you
have all your favorite bells, whistles and blinken lights.
the time spent in typing "# exec my-favorite-shell" is about 2.0
seconds. multiply that by the number of times you need an interactive
root shell, compare to the time spent without access to your system
or recovering it from such problems. because, if you continue to
do stuff like that, eventually you will have such problems.
let me repeat that.
if you continue to do stuff like that, then eventually you will
have such problems.
so, just learn to use exec. simple and quick, keeps things clean.
(and working.) you will even give other people the impression that
you know what you are doing..
cel
p.s. 13+ years experience system management with NeXT, SunOS{4.x,5.x},
MacOS, OpenBSD (2.2 to present), Linux, OSF1/Tru64.
--
Christopher Linn <celinn at mtu.edu> | By no means shall either the CEC
System Administrator II | or MTU be held in any way liable
Center for Experimental Computation | for any opinions or conjecture I
Michigan Technological University | hold to or imply to hold herein.
