Bug 163432

Summary:	Environment variables set from /etc/login.conf do not have surrounding quote characters removed
Product:	Base System	Reporter:	Mike Clarke <jmc-fbsdpr>
Component:	conf	Assignee:	freebsd-bugs (Nobody) <bugs>
Status:	Closed FIXED
Severity:	Affects Only Me
Priority:	Normal
Version:	Unspecified
Hardware:	Any
OS:	Any

Description Mike Clarke 2011-12-18 15:20:08 UTC

If /etc/login.conf is used to set an environment variable and the value is enclosed between quote characters the quotes are not stripped off when setting the variable. This problem only arises with FreeBSD 9, the quotes were removed with earlier versions.

Fix: 

As a workaround edit /etc/login.conf to remove the surrounding quotes from the item in the setenv line. However this will not work if you need to include commas in the value.
How-To-Repeat: Add a value for EXINIT to the default /etc/login.conf as shown below:

:setenv=MAIL=/var/mail/$,BLOCKSIZE=K,FTP_PASSIVE_MODE=YES,EXINIT="set ai ic sw=3":\

Then login and check the value of EXINIT, the quotes have been included and it appears as "set ai ic sw=3" instead of set ai ic sw=3. The presence of the quotes prevents vi from setting these options.

Comment 1 Jaakko Heinonen freebsd_committer

2011-12-18 18:18:37 UTC

Hi,

On 2011-12-18, Mike Clarke wrote:
> If /etc/login.conf is used to set an environment variable and the
> value is enclosed between quote characters the quotes are not stripped
> off when setting the variable. This problem only arises with FreeBSD
> 9, the quotes were removed with earlier versions.
> 
> :setenv=MAIL=/var/mail/$,BLOCKSIZE=K,FTP_PASSIVE_MODE=YES,EXINIT="set ai ic sw=3":\

Can you clarify the "earlier versions"? I get this on 8.2-RELEASE:

$ env
.
.
EXINIT="set ai ic sw=3"

-- 
Jaakko

Comment 2 Mike Clarke 2011-12-18 20:52:27 UTC

On Sunday 18 December 2011, Jaakko Heinonen wrote:

> Can you clarify the "earlier versions"?

On 8.1-RELEASE the quotes get stripped off.

curlew:/home/mike% grep setenv /etc/login.conf
        :setenv=MAIL=/var/mail/$,BLOCKSIZE=K,FTP_PASSIVE_MODE=YES,EDITOR=vi,EXINIT="set 
ai ic sw=3",PAGER=less,EJECT=/dev/acd0:\


curlew:/home/mike% env | grep EXINIT
EXINIT=set ai ic sw=3

-- 
Mike Clarke

Comment 3 Jaakko Heinonen freebsd_committer

2011-12-19 10:34:45 UTC

On 2011-12-18, Mike Clarke wrote:
> On 8.1-RELEASE the quotes get stripped off.
> 
> curlew:/home/mike% grep setenv /etc/login.conf
>         :setenv=MAIL=/var/mail/$,BLOCKSIZE=K,FTP_PASSIVE_MODE=YES,EDITOR=vi,EXINIT="set 
> ai ic sw=3",PAGER=less,EJECT=/dev/acd0:\
> 
> 
> curlew:/home/mike% env | grep EXINIT
> EXINIT=set ai ic sw=3

I still get EXINIT="set ai ic sw=3" on 8.1-RELEASE. Are you sure that
your database is up to date (i.e. you have run cap_mkdb /etc/login.conf)?

-- 
Jaakko

Comment 4 Mike Clarke 2011-12-19 14:13:19 UTC

On Monday 19 December 2011, you wrote:

> I still get EXINIT="set ai ic sw=3" on 8.1-RELEASE. Are you sure that
> your database is up to date (i.e. you have run cap_mkdb
> /etc/login.conf)?

Yes, it's up to date but I've just discovered a long forgotten line 
in .cshrc which was also setting EXINIT and overriding the value from 
login.conf. After removing the .cshrc line I now get the quotes the 
same way as you do. The issue only became visible on the new 9.0 system 
I was setting up because the new user account didn't have a copy of the 
old .cshrc file.

I've now removed the qoutes from login.conf since I now see that they 
should not have been there. I'm sorry for any inconvenience caused by 
my oversight.

This does leave the minor point that the absence of a quoting facility 
means that it doesn't seem possible to include a comma in the value of 
an environment variable defined in login.conf, though I doubt if many 
users will ever need to do this.

-- 
Mike Clarke

Comment 5 Jaakko Heinonen freebsd_committer

2011-12-19 17:57:04 UTC

State Changed
From-To: open->closed

Not a regression. Submitter agrees that this can be closed.