[NTLUG:Discuss] $PATH=what??!

[Cameron]

* kbrannen at gte.net [1999.11.20 10:27]:
: 
: Actually, the path is set in /etc/profile; at least for regular shells,
: ssh may have its own equivalent (I haven't used it).  Nevertheless, I
: seem to recall your first email had one solution in it.  Personally, I'd
: do something like:
: 
: $ ssh bravo2 'PATH=whatever command'
: 
: just like you can do on your local system.  BUT :-) unless that command
: executes multiple sub-commands, why do you even need to set the PATH? 
: If it's just a single command, AND you know where it is, just execute it
: by giving its full path.
: 
: HTH,
: Kevin
: 

(/while you read this, keep in mind that i fixed the problem)

Kevin,

i guess i should explain a little bit about what the heck i'm trying to
do.  i'm trying to get LAM/MPI software to work on a cluster.  LAM/MPI
(http://www.mpi.nd.edu/lam/) is a messaging suite that allows you to
run programs on a cluster.  when lam starts up, it makes an SSH (which
was RSH) connection to each node and starts up lam's "daemons".  the
following is a partial command that's run by the lam suite:

  $ /usr/local/bin/ssh -x bravo1 -n hboot -t -c conf.lam ...

that's bravo0 trying to start up "hboot" on the bravo1 node, and hboot
MUST be in bash's default path.  after several hours of searching and
testing and even IRC (yuck), i found the "source" of the problem.  the
part that was driving me nuts was in /etc/profile where the path is set
like so:

  PATH="$PATH:/whatever/you/have/here"

and if /etc/profile is the genesis of all bash happenings, why set the
PATH to "$PATH:/..."?  well, i finally downloaded the source for bash2,
did a configure and viola--there's a DEFAULT_PATH_VALUE in config-top.h.
so needless to say, i wasn't going to screw with bash and opted to make
symlinks in /usr/local/bin.  :)

and even after the hours i spent trying to figure out how to change it
and seeing that it's better of unchanged, i'm still satisfied.  if i
were using NT, i'd still be pissed off and i'd still be searching,
only i'd be searching in Micros~1's "Knowledge Database".  long live
open source!

anyhoo, thanks Kevin for helping me out.  hope some us learned some
things from my toiling.  :)  thanks
-- 
cameron
  [ Grow up and use mutt (http://www.mutt.org) ]