[from newbies] RE: Command path

[Matthew Seaman]

On Tue, Jun 29, 2004 at 08:11:12AM +0000, clayton rollins wrote:
 
> In sh, you could do:
> 'PATH=.:$PATH'
> 
> in (t)csh, you could do:
> 'setenv PATH .:$PATH'

Generally you should be exceedingly careful about putting '.' onto
your $PATH.  You should certainly not put '.' into root's $PATH, and
preferably not at the beginning of the $PATH for ordinary users.

ie. If you must put '.' in your path, do it like this:

    PATH=${PATH}:. ; export PATH

or

    setenv PATH ${PATH}:.

The danger with having '.' on a the $PATH is that you can trick
(deliberately or not) people into running trojan programs.  Bad for
ordinary users, disasterous for root.

	Cheers,

	Matthew

-- 
Dr Matthew J Seaman MA, D.Phil.                       26 The Paddocks
                                                      Savill Way
PGP: http://www.infracaninophile.co.uk/pgpkey         Marlow
Tel: +44 1628 476614                                  Bucks., SL7 1TH UK
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