Date: 2003-08-19

Description: Enable environment processing
by sshd on a cluster.


Affects: N/A


Summary: Environment processing is disabled by default and is controlled via
the PermitUserEnvironment option. 

N.B. Enabling environment processing may enable users to bypass access restrictions 
in some configurations.


Symptoms: Environment processing is disabled.


To enable the environment processing by sshd
on a cluster, the user should do the following.

On each node:
1. Login as “root”.
2. Edit /etc/ssh/sshd_config file and add the line:
 
   PermitUserEnvironment yes

   anywhere in the file.
3. Reboot the cluster.

On the front-end:
1. Log in as the desired user.
2. Create the file ~/.ssh/environment:

   touch ~/.ssh/environment

3. Change the permission of ~/.ssh/environment:

   chmod go-rwx ~/.ssh/environment

4. Add environment variables with the syntax:

   name=value

   The file can only contain empty lines, comment lines
   (that start  with “#”), and assignment lines of
   the form name=value.