Re: If we change the root shell to csh on Solaris, is this likely to be supported by Oracle?

From: <alcesteatxmissiondot_at_com.or.net>
Date: Fri, 3 Oct 2003 07:03:49 +0000 (UTC)
Message-ID: <blj70l$6m7$2@terabinaries.xmission.com>

Mike Crawford <michael.crawford_at_bbc.co.uk> wrote:
> Our hosting facility is proposing we change the root shell on Solaris
> 9 from the standard Bourne shell which comes standard with Solaris to
> the C shell.
> Any other comments?

Dumb move. Do what others have done...launch the root shell on login, whatever. Although in most cases scripts with have their own #!/bin/sh when they need them, there are others reasons...and frankly no good reason to do so.

Here's one good reason why not:

______________________________begin example_______________________________________

# uname -a
SunOS whitey.anagnosis.com 5.9 Generic_112233-03 sun4m sparc SUNW,SPARCstation-10 # ldd /bin/sh

        libgen.so.1 =>   /usr/lib/libgen.so.1
        libsecdb.so.1 =>         /usr/lib/libsecdb.so.1
        libnsl.so.1 =>   /usr/lib/libnsl.so.1
        libc.so.1 =>     /usr/lib/libc.so.1
        libcmd.so.1 =>   /usr/lib/libcmd.so.1
        libdl.so.1 =>    /usr/lib/libdl.so.1
        libmp.so.2 =>    /usr/lib/libmp.so.2
# ldd /bin/csh
        libcurses.so.1 =>        /usr/lib/libcurses.so.1
        libsecdb.so.1 =>         /usr/lib/libsecdb.so.1
        libnsl.so.1 =>   /usr/lib/libnsl.so.1
        libc.so.1 =>     /usr/lib/libc.so.1
        libcmd.so.1 =>   /usr/lib/libcmd.so.1
        libdl.so.1 =>    /usr/lib/libdl.so.1
        libmp.so.2 =>    /usr/lib/libmp.so.2

# ldd /sbin/sh
ldd: /sbin/sh: file is not a dynamic executable or shared object # mv /usr/lib/libcurses.so.1 /usr/lib/libcurses.so.1old # /bin/csh
ld.so.1: /bin/csh: fatal: libcurses.so.1: open failed: No such file or directory Killed

---

/sbin/sh, the default root shell in Solaris, is a statically linked executable that you know will do the trick in a pinch even if someone comes along and blows all your shared libraries away. Not a possibility, even by accident? Cut and paste this message into a shell and then tell me so...no, really, don't.

Now of course they might have built their own...but someone who can't just launch a csh for root probably hasn't.

Jer Smith
Anagnosis Consulting Received on Fri Oct 03 2003 - 02:03:49 CDT