Description of problem: The pathmunging in /etc/profile to add "/sbin:/usr/sbin:/usr/local/sbin" is conditional on the effective user ID being root (0). Many system administrators change this file to make the addition of the sbin directories unconditional. Changing the default would reduce the temptation to work as root when it is not strictly necessary and it make a plain 'su' much more useful. The performance hit for searching the additional directories is almost undetectable and no significant security issues would be introduced. Version-Release number of selected component (if applicable): 2.5.49 Steps to Reproduce: 1. Start bash as a normal user. 2. Try to execute ifconfig, lsusb, lsof, runlevel, hwclock (and others) - all commands that provide useful features when run without privilege. Actual results: - 'command not found' Expected results: - Commands should execute. Additional info: Because of consolehelper, the sbin directories should be placed at the end of the path for the non-superuser, and should probably be placed at the start for the superuser: # Path manipulation if [ $EUID = 0 ]; then pathmunge /sbin pathmunge /usr/sbin pathmunge /usr/local/sbin else pathmunge /sbin after pathmunge /usr/sbin after pathmunge /usr/local/sbin after fi
Default should stay as we are right now, the above should rather go into local config changes. regards, Florian La Roche