I'm having a problem in that a few "admins" who have been given root
access to some of my machines, and from whom I cannot take it away,
seem to refuse to put the dash on an su.  Because they don't set up a
good prompt (IMHO), they have no idea of their cwd, and therefore do
things like chmods/chowns/etc in wrong directories and screw things
up.  Is there a way to force my own PS1 on them.  Forcing the target
user (root in this case) env. on them would be a bad option because
they have so many env. variables set that they need to reference.

Thanks.

Matthew Libhart wrote:
> I'm having a problem in that a few "admins" who have been given root
> access to some of my machines, and from whom I cannot take it away,
> seem to refuse to put the dash on an su.  Because they don't set up a
> good prompt (IMHO), they have no idea of their cwd, and therefore do
> things like chmods/chowns/etc in wrong directories and screw things
> up.  Is there a way to force my own PS1 on them.  Forcing the target
> user (root in this case) env. on them would be a bad option because
> they have so many env. variables set that they need to reference.
> 
> Thanks.

Unless you are the boss and are responsible for writing all of your
standard operating procedures, you can not "force" an environment
on another user. I mean, you could, but it wouldn't be very wise.
How else are they going to learn, except from their own mistakes.

Some time ago one of the admins here decided that all the users
needed to have their path in their unix prompt. So he just went
into our master startup file and changed it. He came very close
to getting fired.

Many people like to have their current path in their prompt. Personally,
I think it's a waste of time. I feel that, "If you don't know where you
are all the time on the system, then you don't belong there". But
that's just my opinion.

You should stick to less volatile subjects then environments, like
religion or politics. Next you'll be telling them what editor to use.

-- 
Martin E. Meserve
k7mem@myrealbox.com
http://www.k7mem.150m.com

Environment doesn't appear in my subject, like I said in my original
message, I don't want to force and environment on them, just a prompt.
 I agree, if they can't handle the responsibility they shouldn't be
there, but I don't get to kick them out, so all I can do is try to
save them from themselves.  I don't care what people do as themselves,
but when they're root, then they get to do it my way, because I have
to fix it when they break it.

Not trying to start any great controversy, so if anyone has any
constructive advice on how to force a prompt, that'd be great. 
Thanks.