RE: environment variables vs defaults

[ian . mondragon]

all -

  while not *darwin* specific, i have been eagerly hacking away at prototype
versions of a utility that would effectively utilize the user defaults
database for setting environment variables in a shell-independant manner -
but all of my work is currently being done using the GNUstep API as i don't
have the $3000 to drop on the purty G4 i've been drooling over.  the project
is in a horribly pre-alpha stage as i just started it the other week, but
i'm sure that it would not be too much of a chore to port it over to OS X
once it (a) is more of a reality and (b) has a mac to function on in my
home.

(yes, another ian)
- ian mondragon

> -----Original Message-----
> From: Ian P. Cardenas [SMTP:ian_cardenas@ultraviolent.com]
> Sent: Tuesday, January 02, 2001 1:41 PM
> To:   darwin-development@lists.apple.com
> Subject:      environment variables vs defaults
> 
> Hi all,
> 
>       Has there been any discussion in providing OSX-style user defaults
> to 
> traditional UNIX applications?  Specifically, there are things like cvs's 
> CVS_RSH environmental variable that I would like every cvs application 
> running for my user to have access to.  For a particular shell, I can have
> 
> this variable set in the .bashrc, .cshrc, etc.  However, if some 
> application that uses a different environment (or no shell, as in the case
> 
> of a Workspace launched process) launches cvs it will not have this 
> variable set.  What I think makes sense is to have some universally 
> available service for environmental variables.  Then there could be one 
> place that a user sets the variable and it would be available to all
> shells 
> and all processes.  MacOS X provides exactly such a service in 
> CoreFoundation's Preference Services.
> 
> http://developer.apple.com/techpubs/macosx/CoreFoundation/PreferenceServic
> es/Preference_Services/index.html
> 
> Does anyone have any comments on how UNIX environment variables and 
> CoreFoundation could be integrated?  My initial thought was to do so at
> the 
> getenv() level in stdlib.  If getenv was modified to do a Preference
> lookup 
> upon a failure to locate a variable in the environment that would be a 
> simple method of integration.  This would allow a user to do something
> like:
> 
> defaults write cvs CVS_RSH ssh
> 
>       What do other people think?  From looking at the projects list for
> Darwin 
> it seems like CoreFoundation is not part of Darwin.  If that's correct, 
> this might only be of interest to MacOS X users.  Perhaps, I just see the 
> problem differently because of my background.  How do X11 apps launched 
> from a window manager handle this?
> 
> -- 
> Ian P. Cardenas
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