[Emacs-diffs] Changes to emacs/man/tramp.texi

[Kai Großjohann]

Index: emacs/man/tramp.texi
diff -c emacs/man/tramp.texi:1.22 emacs/man/tramp.texi:1.23
*** emacs/man/tramp.texi:1.22   Tue Jun 17 10:05:19 2003
--- emacs/man/tramp.texi        Sun Jul 20 15:00:56 2003
***************
*** 1310,1315 ****
--- 1310,1360 ----
  the variables @code{tramp-actions-before-shell} and
  @code{tramp-multi-actions} (for multi-hop connections).
  
+ @item Non-Bourne commands in @file{.profile}
+ 
+ After logging in to the remote host, @tramp{} issues the command
+ @code{exec /bin/sh}.  (Actually, the command is slightly different.)
+ When @code{/bin/sh} is executed, it reads some init files, such as
+ @file{~/.shrc} or @file{~/.profile}.
+ 
+ Now, some people have a login shell which is not @code{/bin/sh} but a
+ Bourne-ish shell such as bash or ksh.  Some of these people might put
+ their shell setup into the files @code{~/.shrc} or @code{~/.profile}.
+ This way, it is possible for non-Bourne constructs to end up in those
+ files.  Then, @code{exec /bin/sh} might cause the Bourne shell to barf
+ on those constructs.
+ 
+ As an example, imagine somebody putting @code{export FOO=bar} into the
+ file @file{~/.profile}.  The standard Bourne shell does not understand
+ this syntax and will emit a syntax error when it reaches this line.
+ 
+ Another example is the tilde (@code{~}) character, say when adding
+ @file{~/bin} to @code{$PATH}.  Many Bourne shells will not expand this
+ character, and since there is usually no directory whose name consists
+ of the single character tilde, strange things will happen.
+ 
+ What can you do about this?
+ 
+ Well, one possibility is to make sure that everything in @file{~/.shrc}
+ and @file{~/.profile} on all remote hosts is Bourne-compatible.  In the
+ above example, instead of @code{export FOO=bar}, you might use
+ @code{FOO=bar; export FOO} instead.
+ 
+ The other possibility is to put your non-Bourne shell setup into some
+ other files.  For example, bash reads the file @file{~/.bash_profile}
+ instead of @file{~/.profile}, if the former exists.  So bash
+ aficionados just rename their @file{~/.profile} to
+ @file{~/.bash_profile} on all remote hosts, and Bob's your uncle.
+ 
+ The @tramp{} developers would like to circumvent this problem, so if you
+ have an idea about it, please tell us.  However, we are afraid it is not
+ that simple: before saying @code{exec /bin/sh}, @tramp{} does not know
+ which kind of shell it might be talking to.  It could be a Bourne-ish
+ shell like ksh or bash, or it could be a csh derivative like tcsh, or
+ it could be zsh, or even rc.  If the shell is Bourne-ish already, then
+ it might be prudent to omit the @code{exec /bin/sh} step.  But how to
+ find out if the shell is Bourne-ish?
+ 
  @end table