Christian Long Tech notes and tidbits

(Novell) SuSE Linux 9

Note: when using su, don't forget to use the -l flag to make the new shell a login shell - that is, so that it gets its PATH variable set as if the user were logging in

See differences below


su
echo $PATH
/usr/sbin:/bin:/usr/bin:/sbin:/usr/X11R6/bin


su -l
echo $PATH
/sbin:/usr/sbin:/usr/local/sbin:/root/bin:/usr/local/bin:
/usr/bin:/usr/X11R6/bin:/bin:/usr/games:/opt/gnome/bin:
/opt/kde3/bin:/usr/local/sbin


On SuSE, to add to the PATH for everybody:
as root make a file /etc/profile.local with the content:


export PATH=$PATH:/usr/local/bla


Then each console or term window you open with any user with an account on that computer will have /usr/local/bla as an element of the path. Of course, replace "/usr/local/bla" with whatever path you want to add to $PATH.

More info about $PATH here. http://www.faqs.org/docs/Linux-mini/Path.html