/etc/default/login change from 3.6 to 3.7???

[Darren Tucker]

Edward S. Peschko wrote:
> I just got an ugly, hard-to-fix surpirse when I upgraded from 3.6 to 3.7 for 
> openssh - Now, in 3.7.1, /etc/default/login overrides --with-default-path! Before,
> it used to prefer --with-default-path (as configured).

The reasoning was: run-time configuration by the host's admin trumps 
compile-time configuration by the package builder.

> I'm hoping that this is a bug. It forces every user to have an appropriate
> .login,.cshrc, or whatever *or* to comment out the appropriate entries in /
> etc/default/login!

Or put the path to scp in /etc/default/login, or disable it at build time.

$ ./configure --help |grep default-log
--disable-etc-default-login   Disable using PATH from /etc/default/login

> Either that, or I'm missing something truly obvious...

Well, there were some clues...
$ ./configure
[snip]
checking for "/etc/default/login"... yes
configure: WARNING:
If PATH is defined in /etc/default/login, ensure the path to scp is 
included, otherwise scp will not work.
Adding /usr/local/bin to USER_PATH so scp will work
[snip]
OpenSSH has been configured with the following options:
[snip]
   sshd default user PATH: /usr/bin:/bin:/usr/sbin:/sbin:/usr/local/bin
  (If PATH is set in /etc/default/login it will be used instead. If
  used, ensure the path to scp is present, otherwise scp will not work.)

The use of /etc/default/login was also mentioned in the 3.7 release 
notes (not the interaction with scp, though).

FWIW, --with-etc-default-login probably should have defaulted to "no" 
(this is my fault), but it's too late to change it now.

-- 
Darren Tucker (dtucker at zip.com.au)
GPG key 8FF4FA69 / D9A3 86E9 7EEE AF4B B2D4  37C9 C982 80C7 8FF4 FA69
     Good judgement comes with experience. Unfortunately, the experience
usually comes from bad judgement.