Re: Parallel and $ENV{"HOME"}

[Ole Tange]

On Mon, Oct 10, 2011 at 11:00 AM, Benjamin Henrion <bh@udev.org> wrote:
> Hi,

Hi Benjamin.

First thanks for putting so much work into fighting software patents.

> I use parallel to shoot WALs of postgresql to multiple servers:
>
> $ grep parallel /etc/postgresql/9.1/main/postgresql.conf
> archive_command = 'parallel -a /etc/postgresql/9.1/main/walservers
> "mkdir -pv /tmp/{}/pg_xlog/; gzip -1 -v -c %p > /tmp/{}/%p.gz; rsync
> /tmp/{}/%p.gz -az --timeout=15 --log-file=/var/log/pgwal/pgwal{}.log
> {}:/db/current/wal/%f.gz; rm -v /tmp/{}/%p.gz"'            # command
> to use to archive a logfile segment
>
> Then in the postgresql logs, it complains that the $ENV{"HOME"}
> variable is not set:
>
> Use of uninitialized value $ENV{"HOME"} in concatenation (.) or string
> at /usr/bin/parallel line 727.
> Use of uninitialized value $ENV{"HOME"} in concatenation (.) or string
> at /usr/bin/parallel line 727.
> Use of uninitialized value $ENV{"HOME"} in concatenation (.) or string
> at /usr/bin/parallel line 1880.
> Use of uninitialized value $ENV{"HOME"} in concatenation (.) or string
> at /usr/bin/parallel line 1880.
>
> Any idea how to fix that?

The above should only happen if $HOME is not set for the user. So:

* What user is this being run as?
* Why does that user not have $HOME set?
* What would be the sensible default value of $HOME if not set?


/Ole