GNU bug report logs -
#31112
Patching the default PATH of `su`
Previous Next
Reported by: Leo Famulari <leo <at> famulari.name>
Date: Mon, 9 Apr 2018 16:18:01 UTC
Severity: normal
Done: Leo Famulari <leo <at> famulari.name>
Bug is archived. No further changes may be made.
Full log
View this message in rfc822 format
[Message part 1 (text/plain, inline)]
Your bug report
#31112: Patching the default PATH of `su`
which was filed against the guix-patches package, has been closed.
The explanation is attached below, along with your original report.
If you require more details, please reply to 31112 <at> debbugs.gnu.org.
--
31112: http://debbugs.gnu.org/cgi/bugreport.cgi?bug=31112
GNU Bug Tracking System
Contact help-debbugs <at> gnu.org with problems
[Message part 2 (message/rfc822, inline)]
[Message part 3 (text/plain, inline)]
On Mon, Apr 09, 2018 at 10:47:30PM +0200, Ludovic Courtès wrote:
> Leo Famulari <leo <at> famulari.name> skribis:
> > From dc5098edd98c85ad45d2e22ca1824a9445dcc36d Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001
> > From: Leo Famulari <leo <at> famulari.name>
> > Date: Sun, 8 Apr 2018 14:30:05 -0400
> > Subject: [PATCH] system: Provide a fall-back PATH for non-login shells started
> > with su(1).
> >
> > * gnu/system.scm (operating-system-etc-service): Provide values for
> > ENV_PATH and ENV_SUPATH in '/etc/login.defs'.
>
> So LGTM, thank you!
Alright, pushed as e453da132a3482540d2166b23554ef693b2c0c0d
[signature.asc (application/pgp-signature, inline)]
[Message part 5 (message/rfc822, inline)]
[Message part 6 (text/plain, inline)]
On Fri, Apr 06, 2018 at 10:01:57AM +0200, Ludovic Courtès wrote:
> Probably, yes. It would be good to check how this affects
> mingetty/login, sshd, etc.
I've attached a patch that sets the variables in /etc/login.defs.
The resulting PATH only includes "system" packages, which are found in
/run/current-system and /run/setuid-programs.
It would be better if it also included the user-specific programs in
~/.guix-profile, but I don't think this is possible without patching
`su` to look up usernames.
Shell variables are not expanded by `su`, so using $HOME doesn't work.
And I'm not sure how to use /var/guix/profiles/per-user without making
`su` look up usernames.
Nevertheless, I think it's an improvement, although maybe it's less
confusing for the PATH to be totally wrong than merely missing the
user's packages. WDYT?
With the attached patch, I tested mingetty and agetty's login, as well
as OpenSSH sshd login, and everything seemed to work — this changes
should have no effect in those cases because it affects non-login shells
only.
> Note that libc also has its own default PATH value in <paths.h>:
>
> /* Default search path. */
> #define _PATH_DEFPATH "/usr/bin:/bin"
> /* All standard utilities path. */
> #define _PATH_STDPATH \
> "/usr/bin:/bin:/usr/sbin:/sbin"
>
> Does ‘su’ rely on this? In a future rebuild cycle we could change these
> values, but /run/current-system/bin wouldn’t work on foreign distros, so
> it’s not clear there’s much to gain.
AFAICT, `su` doesn't use this. The relevant code is below; it hard-codes
the fall-back PATHs rather than refer to libc.
------
/*
* Create the PATH environmental variable and export it.
*/
cp = getdef_str ((info->pw_uid == 0) ? "ENV_SUPATH" : "ENV_PATH");
if (NULL == cp) {
/* not specified, use a minimal default */
addenv ((info->pw_uid == 0) ? "PATH=/sbin:/bin:/usr/sbin:/usr/bin" : "PATH=/bin:/usr/bin", NULL);
} else if (strchr (cp, '=')) {
/* specified as name=value (PATH=...) */
addenv (cp, NULL);
} else {
/* only value specified without "PATH=" */
addenv ("PATH", cp);
}
------
https://github.com/shadow-maint/shadow/blob/15be89f89d553c06d52453721ee8e9a8433cfdfd/libmisc/setupenv.c#L263
[0001-system-Provide-a-fall-back-PATH-for-non-login-shells.patch (text/plain, attachment)]
[signature.asc (application/pgp-signature, inline)]
This bug report was last modified 7 years and 43 days ago.
Previous Next
GNU bug tracking system
Copyright (C) 1999 Darren O. Benham,
1997,2003 nCipher Corporation Ltd,
1994-97 Ian Jackson.