rkl@anduin.cs.liverpool.ac.uk (09/04/90)
Someone brought to my attention the following "loophole" when running
/etc/profile or /etc/csh.login under HP-UX (6.2,6.5 or 7.0) on Series 300
or 800 machines:
$ telnet hostname
login: fred IFS=euq # Yes, login can assign env. vars.
Password: <Type password)
Depending on the chars assigned to IFS, you are very likely to get
"test: argument expected" and a complete bomb out to the shell prompt.
We implement a "home-brew" quotaing check (roll on 8.0 !) at login and
this circumvents it quite easily.
How to fix it:
The IFS variable is used by ksh to determine the separators for read
and test and doesn't actually need to be defined (it will default to
space, tab and newline - $20,$09,$0A - if it isn't).
So put: unset IFS at the top of your /etc/profile and
unsetenv IFS at the top of your /etc/csh.login.
I assume this is OK and won't wreck anything - anyone else want to
check this out ?
Richard K. Lloyd, *** This is a MicroVAX II running VAX/VMS V5.3-1 ***
Computer Science Dept., * JANET : RKL@UK.AC.LIV.CS.AND or *
Liverpool University, * RKL@000010500211.FTP.MAIL *
Merseyside, England, * Internet : RKL%and.cs.liv.ac.uk@cunyvm.cuny.edu *
Great Britain. *** Please note: New e-mail address ! ***