DTU Databar Login Environment

Supported Login Shells

The UNIX shells we support for the DTU databar system are listed below.

DTU Databar UNIX shells.
ShellNameSyntax
/bin/kshKorn-Shellkorn
/bin/keyshKey-Shellkorn
/bin/bashGNU Bourne-Again Shellkorn
/bin/cshC-Shellsea
/bin/tcshTC-Shellsea

In addition to the supported login shells, the oldest of the UNIX shells, Bourne shell (/bin/sh) is also available, but for shell scripts only. You should choose the korn shell instead for your login shell.

The UNIX shells available in the DTU databars (and everywhere else :-) can be divided into two families: Korn shell and sea (or C) shell type shells, as listed above.
The Bourne shell belongs to the korn shell family (korn shell is actually a descendant of bourne shell).

The difference between the two shell families is their command syntax, especially in the commands used for setting of environment variables and the specification of input/output file redirection.

The shells within each family differs in the amount of extra features included, e.g. command line editing support.

Use the command "echo $SHELL" to see which of the above shells is your login shell, that is, the shell that interprets the commands you type in xterm windows, etc.

You can use the command "chsh shell" if you want to change your login shell. shell must be the one of the shells listed above, specified with or without the /bin/ part.

Shell Profiles

When you start a new shell, a number of shell profiles are sourced (interpreted). Which files are sourced depends on the shell and how it is started.

A shell can be started as a login-shell or a non-login shell. The term login-shell used here should not be confused with the meaning of login shell used in the section above.

A login-shell is started if you login via telnet or rlogin or start an xterm window with "xterm -ls".
You get a non-login shell from the remote shell command or xterm without -ls option.

The shell profiles sourced are listed below, in the order in which they are sourced.

Sourced Shell Profiles.
ShellLogin-ShellNon-Login Shell
ksh/etc/profile
~/.profile
~/.kshrc		~/.kshrc
keysh/etc/profile
~/.profile
~/.kshrc		~/.kshrc
bash/etc/profile
~/.profile
~/.kshrc		~/.bashrc
csh/etc/csh.login
~/.cshrc
~/.login		~/.cshrc
tcsh/etc/csh.login
~/.tcshrc
~/.login		~/.tcshrc

The rest of this section is under construction ...

Group User Setup

Information about group setup, used in different courses can be found here.

Last updated: 1997.02.27 by UNI*C Databar Support.