Shared home directory and NIS

[Bill Davidsen]

Wendell Nichols wrote:
> I have access to several linux machines at work and they're all on a 
> single nis domain.  My home dir is on an nfs mount and is the same for 
> all machines.   I have xrdp installed on all of them but because the 
> home dir is shared I find that the second session behaves badly.  
> firefox wont start and any desktop that has log files fights with its 
> counterpart on the other desktop.
> Is there a way to overcome this?
> I cannot change the nis and shared home dir setup...

You *may* be able to set up your own unique "home" directory on each machine. 
Create a subdirectory, change to it, and reset the HOME variable to point to 
that directory. So you fool the applications into seeing a different HOME on 
each machine.

Maybe a script:
  #!/bin/bash
  eval REALHOME="~${LOGNAME}"
  NEWHOME=${REALHOME}/home_$(uname -n)
  [ -d ${NEWHOME} ] || mkdir -p ${NEWHOME}
  cd ${NEWHOME}
  HOME=${NEWHOME}
  CDPATH=.:${NEWHOME}:${REALHOME}

Not all applications will use this, the local "HOME" directory will accumulate 
all the config files for every application, but it may be good enough to be 
useful. Of course unsharing your home may run counter to the intent of the 
policy, can't help you there.


-- 
Bill Davidsen <davidsen at tmr.com>
   "We have more to fear from the bungling of the incompetent than from
the machinations of the wicked."  - from Slashdot