Comment 2 for bug 678421
Revision history for this message
| Gunnar Hjalmarsson (gunnarhj) wrote Re: Error in ~/.profile halts the X startup | #2 |
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0e1f616
(Get the code!)
I want to correct myself: When discussing this with more experienced developers, my attention was called to the fact that I had missed the distinction between syntax errors and other errors. While a syntax error kills the process, other errors, e.g. "not found", don't. Hence you can disregard my talk about the -e option.
A possible solution did come up. Replacing this /etc/gdm/Xsession line:
test -f "$HOME/.profile" && . "$HOME/.profile"
with
test -f "$HOME/.profile" && ( . "$HOME/.profile" ) && . "$HOME/.profile"
would protect against a ~/.profile syntax error causing the process to be killed. For two reasons it's not considered appropriate, at least not as soon before the 11.04 release as we are now:
1. Regression risk due to the ~/.profile commands being run twice (even if they would be run in a subprocess the first time).
2. Efficiency loss.
For the case the conclusion will change after the 11.04 release, a merge proposal with the above solution is available.