Re: CVS /etc/inetd.conf question

[Larry Jones]

David D. Hagood writes [quoting me]:
> 
> > Instead of:
> > 
> >         env = HOME=/home/cvs
> > 
> > it is much better is to specify:
> > 
> >         passenv = PATH
> > 
> > (i.e., don't pass $HOME to the server at all).
> 
>   The daemon is running as root when it starts. Then it drops priviledge 
> to the user's level. Unfortunately, it still trys to look in root's home 
> directory for .cvsignore, but as it is now running as a normal user, it 
> cannot.
> 
> The PATH has nothing at all to do with this problem.

You misunderstand -- when you don't specify "passenv", xinetd passes the
entire environment to the child process.  When you *do* specify
"passenv", only the environment variables listed there are passed.  So
the critical part is that "HOME" is *not* listed, not that "PATH" is. 
This results in $HOME not being set at all in the server's environment
(which will cause CVS to compute it correctly) rather than being set to
a bogus value.

-Larry Jones

That's the problem with nature.  Something's always stinging you
or oozing mucus on you. -- Calvin