4.8 Restricted Shells

Restricted shells can be invoked in any of the following ways:

rksh

		Korn shell

ksh -r


set -r



/usr/lib/rsh

	Bourne shell

set -r

Restricted shells can also be set up by supplying the full pathname to rksh or rsh in the shell field of /etc/passwd or by using them as the value for the SHELL variable.

Restricted shells act the same as their nonrestricted counterparts, except that the following are prohibited:

• Changing directory (i.e., using cd ).

• Setting the PATH variable. rksh also prohibits setting ENV and SHELL.

• Specifying a / for command names or pathnames.

• Redirecting output (i.e., using > and >> ). ksh also prohibits the use of <> .

• Adding new built-in commands (ksh93 ).

Shell scripts can still be run, since in that case the restricted shell calls ksh or sh to run the script. This includes the /etc/profile , $HOME/.profile , and $ENV files.

Restricted shells are not used much in practice, as they are difficult to set up correctly.