/sbin sanity
Summary
Fix problems arising from the split between /bin and /sbin.
Owner
- WillWoods, JesseKeating, AdamJackson, PeterJones, et. al.
Current status
- Targeted release: Fedora 10
- Last updated: September 11, 2008
- Percentage of completion: 100%
Detailed Description
Historically, Fedora enforces the split between /bin and /sbin by leaving /sbin and /usr/sbin out of the PATH for normal users. However, binaries that are commonly used for information-gathering (ifconfig, route) by normal users should not be placed out of their reach. Things that are commonly run with sudo should also be in PATH.
Therefore, we should either be smarter about where binaries are located or change the default PATH.
Benefit to Fedora
This is possibly the most common Fedora FAQ. It's the first problem that anyone new to Fedora encounters and it causes people annoyance for no real gain.
Scope
Change the default PATH to include /usr/local/sbin:/usr/sbin:/sbin for all users. Note that it must come at the end of the path for normal users, or consolehelper will break.
Packages and files to change
setup/etc/profile- for bash, zsh, etc./etc/csh.login- for csh, tcsh, etc.
Test Plan
Ensure that the system starts as expected, without messages about missing binaries or anything similar.
The following commonly-used commands should run normally:
sudo service iptables status ifconfig
consolehelper-based apps should still prompt for the root password and run normally. Examples:
system-config-users system-config-boot
User Experience
Things like ifconfig and sudo service NetworkManager restart work as expected for normal users.
People are no longer baffled by "missing" binaries after using su.
Dependencies
The required changes were made September 3 and are included in 
setup-2.7.3-1
Contingency Plan
Revert the change to setup and everything goes back to the way it was.
Documentation
None needed
Release Notes
/usr/local/sbin:/usr/sbin:/sbin has been added to the PATH for normal users, to simplify command-line administration tasks.