XAUTHORITY environment variable set repeatedly on every login
If you're using su
to login as root, then it’s likely due to the use of pam_xauth
to set up a new xauthority file for that session, as described in this old e-mail thread.
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user1039494
Updated on September 18, 2022Comments
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user1039494 over 1 year
I am running a Suse Linux 11.04 system. My problem is that when I do a fresh login into a shell as root, a new Xauthority file of the form
xauth*****
gets created in the/root/
directory. Upon exiting from the shell, a few.xauth
files remain behind. I tried it on other systems but this does not happen. Also, why is theXAUTHORITY
environment variable set only forroot
and not for my other users in the system?man xdm
says the following about theXAUTHORITY
environment variableDisplayManager.DISPLAY.userAuthDir
When xdm is unable to write to the usual user authorization file ($HOME/.Xauthority), it creates a unique file name in this directory and points the environment variable XAUTHORITY at the created file. It uses /tmp by default.
So in my system I do this:
xauth
Using authority file
/root/.xauthPpRsfU
xauth>
I exit
[Ctrl+d]
and I log back in, I see that now it is starting to use a different.xauth*
file.xauth
Using authority file
/root/.xauthq1xt4z
xauth>
Why does it need to keep on creating a diffent
xauth
file every time I login? Also, why is it in root when the default location is/tmp/
? I have not set.DisplayManagaer.DISPLAY.userAuthDir
to/tmp
in thexdm
configuration file.I don't see this behaviour on any other system. In RHEL and Ubuntu all is fine.
For pointers I am not the only one who faces this issue. I guess this post is similar: `$XAUTHORITY` appears from 'nowhere' on su+tmux.
Does anyone know how I can fix this?
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Gilles 'SO- stop being evil' over 12 yearsOn Linux:
grep -lsz '^AUTHORITY=' /proc/[0-9]*/environ | cut -d / -f 3
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user1039494 over 12 yearsi believe that your command above gives me the pid of the process that has changed / updated the XAUTHROTIY environment variable . Could be help me with the logic behind this kind of usage . Seems a handy command .