Re: Set init-file-user via whoami shell command? Prevent load of USER or LOGIN init file

[Kevin Rodgers]

Mark Mynsted wrote:

> I want emacs to load the init file for the effective user, i.e. when
> I su to a different user I wan that user's init file to load.
>
> The documentation says:
> "
> How Emacs Finds Your Init File
> ------------------------------
>
>    Normally Emacs uses the environment variable `HOME' to find
> `.emacs'; that's what `~' means in a file name.  But if you run Emacs
> from a shell started by `su', Emacs tries to find your own `.emacs',
> not that of the user you are currently pretending to be.  The idea is
> that you should get your own editor customizations even if you are
> running as the super user.
>
>    More precisely, Emacs first determines which user's init file to use.
> It gets the user name from the environment variables `LOGNAME' and
> `USER'; if neither of those exists, it uses effective user-ID.  If that
> user name matches the real user-ID, then Emacs uses `HOME'; otherwise,
> it looks up the home directory corresponding to that user name in the
> system's data base of users.
> "


That node's parent (Init File) says:

|    When Emacs is started, it normally loads a Lisp program from the file
| `.emacs' in your home directory.  We call this file your "init file"
| because it specifies how to initialize Emacs for you.  You can use the
| command line switches `-q' and `-u' to tell Emacs whether to load an
| init file, and which one (*note Entering Emacs::.).

That reference isn't very useful, though.  The relevant information is in
the "Initial Options" node:

| `-u USER'
| `--user=USER'
|      Load USER's Emacs init file `~USER/.emacs' instead of your own.


> This is precisely the behavior I do not want.  I think that if I can
> somehow set the value of init-file-user to the effective user in the
> site init file, then I would be fine.  
>
> How can I get the value of the effective user?
>
> The following shell-command function loads the correct value, but puts
> it in the buffer, not in a result that I know how to use.
> (shell-command "whoami" 1)
>
> How can I get the value something like the following to work?
> (set-variable 'init-file-user (shell-command "whoami" 1))

emacs -u `whoami`

emacs --user=`whoami`

--
<a href="mailto:&lt;kevin.rodgers&#64;ihs.com&gt;";>Kevin Rodgers</a>