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Bug 455084

Summary:	The default bash profile on RHE screws up window managers on other systems.
Product:	Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5	Reporter:	Mike Meyer <mwm>
Component:	bash	Assignee:	Roman Rakus <rrakus>
Status:	CLOSED WONTFIX	QA Contact:	BaseOS QE - Apps <qe-baseos-apps>
Severity:	high	Docs Contact:
Priority:	low
Version:	5.0	CC:	rvokal, tsmetana
Target Milestone:	rc
Target Release:	---
Hardware:	All
OS:	Linux
Whiteboard:
Fixed In Version:		Doc Type:	Bug Fix
Doc Text:		Story Points:	---
Clone Of:		Environment:
Last Closed:	2013-03-12 14:30:10 UTC	Type:	---
Regression:	---	Mount Type:	---
Documentation:	---	CRM:
Verified Versions:		Category:	---
oVirt Team:	---	RHEL 7.3 requirements from Atomic Host:
Cloudforms Team:	---	Target Upstream Version:
Embargoed:

Description Mike Meyer 2008-07-11 20:57:03 UTC

Description of problem:

The default bash profile on RHE screws up window managers on other systems.

Version-Release number of selected component (if applicable):


How reproducible:

Log into a desktop system with a window manager that actually manages windows
and cares about window titles for such (ratpoison and plpwm come to mind) and
open an xterm, or an OSX system with Terminal configured with the command key in
title option enabled and open a couple of Terminal windows.

Steps to Reproduce:
1. Log into a red hat system that uses the default bash_profile from that
terminal window. For Terminal, you may have to repeate this process a few times.
2a. Invoke a window manager operation that depends on the title of the window.
2b. Try switching Terminal windows with the windows command key.
  
Actual results:
Windows that should be automatically placed and open are left iconified;
Terminal windows won't switch, because the command key is simply no longer
functional.

Expected results:

That the windows behave as documented - being opened and properly placed as
indicated by the title the user specified, and that the command keys continue
operating as normal.

Additional info:

This problem is made nastier to solve than one would expect on a Unix system
because the undesirable behavior is set in the system-wide rc's, rather than in
the user-controlled rc's provided to new accounts, so that instead of just
finding the place it's set and commenting it out or deleting it, the user has to
learn how all the bash startup scripts interoperate and arrange to turn it off
in the appropriate place for the various scripts - if possible.

Comment 1 RHEL Program Management 2009-11-06 18:59:06 UTC

This request was evaluated by Red Hat Product Management for
inclusion, but this component is not scheduled to be updated in
the current Red Hat Enterprise Linux release. If you would like
this request to be reviewed for the next minor release, ask your
support representative to set the next rhel-x.y flag to "?".

Comment 3 RHEL Program Management 2010-08-09 19:06:26 UTC

This request was evaluated by Red Hat Product Management for
inclusion in the current release of Red Hat Enterprise Linux.
Because the affected component is not scheduled to be updated in the
current release, Red Hat is unfortunately unable to address this
request at this time. Red Hat invites you to ask your support
representative to propose this request, if appropriate and relevant,
in the next release of Red Hat Enterprise Linux.

Comment 4 Roman Rakus 2011-01-18 15:25:28 UTC

I'm sorry, but I can't reproduce this bug. However, is this bug similar to bug 620408? Can you please try to change PROMPT_COMMAND from using echo to use printf?

Comment 6 Mike Meyer 2011-08-17 21:14:19 UTC

No, this is not similar to bug 620408. The PROMPT_COMMAND is doing exactly what it was intended to do. However, that behavior *breaks* window managers on other systems. Besides the two already mentioned, this may create problems for Windows users using tools like WinSize or Winsize2.

Comment 7 RHEL Program Management 2011-09-23 00:30:00 UTC

This request was evaluated by Red Hat Product Management for
inclusion in the current release of Red Hat Enterprise Linux.
Because the affected component is not scheduled to be updated in the
current release, Red Hat is unfortunately unable to address this
request at this time. Red Hat invites you to ask your support
representative to propose this request, if appropriate and relevant,
in the next release of Red Hat Enterprise Linux.

Comment 8 Roman Rakus 2012-05-09 10:54:34 UTC

Did you try to change PROMPT_COMMAND? Is this bug still valid?

Comment 9 Mike Meyer 2012-05-09 12:54:42 UTC

Yes, I changed PROMPT_COMMAND to use printf. It did not solve the problem. The problem is not that garbage is showing up in the window title, the problem is that RHEL is changing the window title on windows that it should be leaving alone.

Comment 10 Roman Rakus 2013-03-12 14:30:10 UTC

RHEL-5.10 (the next RHEL-5 minor release) is going to be the first production phase 2 [1] release of RHEL-5. Since phase 2 we'll be addressing only security and critical issues.

[1] https://access.redhat.com/support/policy/updates/errata/