Re: Root's Shell

["David S." <dgjs@acm.org>]

On Thu, Mar 01, 2001 at 05:44:19PM +0100, Jan Johansson wrote:
> On Thu, Mar 01, 2001 at 08:34:37AM -0800, Alex Le Fevre wrote:
> >How can I change root's default shell? 
> 
> Whatever you do DO NOT CHANGE ROOTS SHELL!! you will shoot
> yourself in the foot someday.
> 
> You have many alternatives.
> 
> Learn to type, you can use "ksh", "exec ksh" or such.
> 
> Make a new user with uid 0 and have the alternative shell for
> that user.
> 
> Use sudo, "sudo /bin/ksh"
> 
> If you still whish to change the root shell you can use vipw(8).
> 

As the poster asserts, it's not a good idea to change root's shell.
But if you must, make sure that root has a statically linked shell
that lives in the '/' partition - probably in '/bin'. Otherwise, 
you won't have a shell if you have to repair your system in 
single-user mode.

David S.