Why use "su -" rather than "su"

[Jeff Vian]

On Sun, 2005-07-17 at 19:15 -0500, John Bray wrote:
> On Sun, 2005-07-17 at 12:55 -0400, Steven C. Liu wrote:
> > Any idea what is causing this?  I use gnome, and I think it's gdm.conf.  I
> > also tried editing /etc/profile by using pathmunge() on /usr/local/bin and
> > /usr/local/sbin with $2 = "after", and it did not work (after sourcing
> > /etc/profile).  Oddly - that should have worked for that root shell I was
> > using.  (I'm logged in as root.)
> > 
> > I have not yet edit the gdm.conf file because I don't yet wish to restart my
> > GUI environment.
> > 
> > Steve
> > 
> > > -----Original Message-----
> > > From: fedora-list-bounces at redhat.com
> > > [mailto:fedora-list-bounces at redhat.com]On Behalf Of Claude Jones
> > > Sent: Sunday, July 17, 2005 12:37 PM
> > > To: For users of Fedora Core releases
> > > Subject: Re: Why use "su -" rather than "su"
> > >
> > >
> > > On Sun July 17 2005 12:27 pm, Tony Nelson wrote:
> > > > At 2:13 AM -0500 7/17/05, John Bray wrote:
> > > > >here's a classic case of how to realllly screw up. su - to root. echo
> > > > >$PATH note that some dolt has managed to set root's path to include
> > > > >/usr/local/bin BEFORE the official sbins! want to guess how this
> > > > >stupidity is eventually going to bite us all? :-(
> > > >
> > > > Mine isn't quite so bad, but it does turn out to have the pattern
> > > > "foo/sbin", "foo/bin".  I expect that you're saying that it
> > > should be all
> > > > sbins, then the bins.  I think I'll change it to that.
> > >
> > > Still a new user here - could you explain how the PATH is edited?
> > > --
> > > Claude Jones
> > > Bluemont, VA, USA
> > >
> > > --
> > > fedora-list mailing list
> > > fedora-list at redhat.com
> > > To unsubscribe: http://www.redhat.com/mailman/listinfo/fedora-list
> > >
> > 
> > 
> > 
> 
> i have so far been unsuccessful in determining what is causing this.  i
> did an informal survey of a number of boxes, and they all had similar
> PATH's set up.
> 
> claude - i don't know where to fix it -- yet.  :-(
> 
> it sure needs to be done at the distro level somewhere, but i haven't
> been able to figure out enough to even do a bugzilla on it.
> 
> john
> 

Look in /etc/profile.  That is where the default path is munged and the
sbin directories are added for root and the /usr/X11R6/bin is added for
all users.  The sequence there puts /usr/local/sbin as the first in the
path for root.

This is not the only place PATH is set, but I can't find the rest of it
right now except for $HOME/.bash_profile