Re: Where is LD_LIBRARY_PATH set?

["Steven W. Orr" <steveo syslang net>]

On Monday, Nov 3rd 2003 at 13:13 -0500, quoth Matthew Saltzman:

=>I have settings in my .bash_profile that add directories to
=>$LD_LIBRARY_PATH.  When I log in on the console, these settings take
=>effect, but when I log in via X (using gdm and GNOME), LD_LIBRARY_PATH is
=>blank.  What is different between the two logins that LD_LIBRARY_PATH is
=>getting reset after I set it in X?  (I know .bash_profile is being
=>executed because all other variables I set are set as expected.)
=>
=>I've looked everywhere in /etc/ and everywhere in my home, and I can't
=>find another place where it's set (other than openoffice setup scripts,
=>which shouldn't have an effect on login).

Sigh. Here we go again. Unless you really know what you're doing, you 
should almost never set LD_LIBRARY_PATH. The purpose of that variable is 
to allow a program to select from a set of multiple shared libraries at 
startup. The reason most people ever want to set this is for when they are 
running executables which come with shared libs which are installed on 
another machine in a different directory from where they were linked. Most 
common example of this is Oracle.

The real solution is to modify ld.so.conf and then run ldconfig.

Oh yeah. One more thing. LD_LIBRARY_PATH is *not* honored in the event of 
an suid program.

-- 
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steveo at syslang.net