[gobolinux-devel] env vars in /etc/zprofile instead of zshrc

[Jonatan Liljedahl]

Michael Homer wrote:
> On Tue, Apr 1, 2008 at 10:58 AM, Jonatan Liljedahl <lijon at kymatica.com> wrote:
>> Michael Homer wrote:
>>  > On Tue, Apr 1, 2008 at 10:27 AM, Jonatan Liljedahl <lijon at kymatica.com> wrote:
>>  >> Nick Matteo wrote:
>>  >>  > On Mon, Mar 31, 2008 at 8:41 AM, Jonatan Liljedahl <lijon at kymatica.com> wrote:
>>  ...
>>
>>>>  > Moving everything to /etc/zprofile won't work because the main concern
>>  >>  > is to make sure it's loaded in all _interactive_ shells. (which
>>  >>  > zprofile isn't, it's only login shells; zshrc on the other hand is for
>>  >>  > exactly this.)  You could have zshrc source zprofile, or you could
>>  >>  > just let scripts run in sh (which they pretty much all do) and leave
>>  >>  > the slim config running sh --login (which it does by default) and
>>  >>  > everything will be fine.
>>  >>
>>  >>  No, zprofile is loaded for all login shells, and zshrc is loaded for
>>  >>  interactive shells *additionally*. So I really think that zshrc should
>>  >>  contain only stuff related to interactive shells, like prompt and
>>  >>  aliases, etc.. while important setup, variables (like PATH and programs
>>  >>  Environment files) should be in zprofile.
>>  > Neither xterm nor any of its derivatives start login shells by
>>  > default, so zprofile would not be loaded in them and mayn't have been
>>  > beforehand. See the zsh guide for exactly what gets loaded when:
>>  > http://zsh.sunsite.dk/Guide/zshguide02.html#l9
>>
>>  Are you sure? When I start an xterm by simply typing 'xterm' in another
>>  xterm, I get one with stuff from my ~/.zprofile loaded. In case it
>>  inherits the variables from the parent xterm, then it's no problem
>>  because it would do it also from other parent shells (like slims X session).
> Yes, I'm sure. Take a look at the docs (or stick an echo in your
> ~/.zprofile and see what you get output). I think there's an X
> resource you can set to make the -ls argument automatic, but I don't
> remember what it is.

You're right, an echo didn't show. So it must be that it inherited it.

> The path will be inherited from the parent shell, of course. That may
> not be zsh, though, so you're back to relying on whatever sh does.

Does it matter? If you're logged in you will (should) have the
environment variables there...

> Environment initialisation probably should be in the profile all the
> same, that's what it's meant for, but there are some obstacles to
> doing it that need to be considered first. To be honest, I'd probably
> be using sh or bash as the login command there anyway.

Regardless of what shell one has in their slim login command, I still
wonders: shouldn't the default gobo settings make zsh --login import the
Environent cache and other important env vars?

I still don't get the reason why env stuff shouldn't be in zprofile,
since it seems to work in all cases. (It *is* read by interactive shells
too, as promised in the zsh manpages)

>>  In case of important environment variables, they could even be put in
>>  zshenv which are read by all shells, login or not.
> That would probably be a bad idea. Then scripts will override the
> actual environment with what's in there every time.

Oh, yes. Didn't think about that.

-- 
/Jonatan         [ http://kymatica.com ]