1.8 Understanding How Login Scripts Work with Linux Workstations

Novell has been able to port the vast majority of login script functionality over to the Linux platform. This means that the login scripts you create in your network will work for both Windows users and Linux users with very little difference in functionality.

Additionally, login scripts that were created to run on Windows will be run when a user logs in from a Linux workstation. This means that in most cases, your existing login scripts do not need to be modified to accommodate Linux workstations unless you have specific commands that you want to run only on Linux workstations.

Some of the small differences are created by the inherent difference between Windows and Linux. For example, when you map drives in Linux, you are creating a symbolic link to a mount point. When you create a mapped drive, you can also use a descriptive name instead of a drive letter since Linux supports descriptive names in addition to drive letters. For more information on differences in the MAP command on Linux, see Section 3.18.1, MAP Command Differences on Linux.

Some login script commands do not work on Linux workstations due to the way the Linux operating system handles them.

  • The following commands do not work: DRIVE, SCRIPT_SERVER, and SET_TIME.

  • FDISPLAY displays the word processing file in binary form with all formatting commands visible. It is better to use the DISPLAY command in Linux.

  • FIRE PHASERS prints a message stating BEEP BEEP BEEP to indicate that the beep has been sent.

  • IF...THEN statements can be nested up to 100 levels in Linux.

  • SET command are not persistent and only apply to the specific login session they are associated with, as is standard with Linux.

  • The TERM command operates the same way that EXIT.operates.