execution environment (checking if in .profile)

[XMRP50000[jcm]-a.v.reed]

In article <7349 at tut.cis.ohio-state.edu>, lvc at tut.cis.ohio-state.edu (Lawrence V. Cipriani) writes:
> >> Is there a way for a program to tell if it was executed
> >> 1) via a users .profile or 2) by a user on their command line?
> >Thus, if your user's login shell is ksh, put in /etc/profile
> >    TMOUT=0 ; export TMOUT ; readonly TMOUT
> >and then have the program check the value of TMOUT in env.
> While writing this I thought of a way to defeat this (albeit obscurely).
> This might work in the .profile
> 	/bin/ksh<<-EOF
> 		TMOUT=2313 ;program
> 	EOF
> Since the readonly attribute is not propogated to children, TMOUT gets set
> and the program will run. 
















However, it is easy to check whether the ppid is that of the head
process (normally = the login shell) on the user's tty, and assume
the worse if it isn't.
			Adam Reed (mtgzz!avr)