[Tutor] accessing another system's environment

[Steve Willoughby]

On 26-Feb-11 01:19, ALAN GAULD wrote:
> Bill,
>
> That's the same thing we are talking about.
> The problem is those environment variables are
> highly variable so you can't talk about a machine's environment.
> Two users on the same machine (at the same time) may have
> very different environments. And a batch file or program can

I'm a Unix hacker, so forgive me if my understanding of Windows is a bit 
naive.  I think, though, that Windows has a set of environment variables 
which are system-wide, added automatically to the user set of variables 
when a new process is launched.  Yes, they can be changed or deleted but 
there is a standard set applied to all users.

If that's a correct assumption on my part, there must be somewhere that 
can be read from, probably (I would guess) in the registry.  So a script 
which could read/write those registry keys may do what is required here.

The issue of exposing that to remote machines remains a dangling issue, 
though.

Of course, it's not entirely clear we're solving a Python question, 
although this discussion may well go more solidly into that space.

> add or remove variables too. So when I run python2 I may have
> the PYTHONPATH seet to one thing, but if I run python3 I
> have it set to something different. And I could be running
> both at the same time. And another user (or service) logged
> into the same machine might be running a Django web server with
> yet another setting. So what is PYTHONPATH for that "machine"?
>
> The USER and HOME Values are set by the OS to different
> values depending on who is logged in, but the user can
> then change these later, etc...
>
> Even with no users logged in you might have different services
> running each with their own environment set up.
>
> It is very difficult for an admin to do anything reliably
> based on environment variable settings.
>
> Alan Gauld
> Author of the Learn To Program website
> http://www.alan-g.me.uk/
> <http://www.alan-g.me.uk>
>
>
>     *From:* Bill Allen <wallenpb at gmail.com>
>     *To:* Alan Gauld <alan.gauld at btinternet.com>
>     *Cc:* tutor at python.org
>     *Sent:* Saturday, 26 February, 2011 2:50:39
>     *Subject:* Re: [Tutor] accessing another system's environment
>
>     I apologize for not have been clear previously. What I am trying to
>     access are the Windows system environment variables. The same ones
>     that are listed out if you type the set command at a command prompt
>     in Windows.
>
>
>     --Bill
>
>
>
>
>
>     On Fri, Feb 25, 2011 at 03:11, Alan Gauld <alan.gauld at btinternet.com
>     <mailto:alan.gauld at btinternet.com>> wrote:
>
>
>         "Bill Allen" <wallenpb at gmail.com <mailto:wallenpb at gmail.com>> wrote
>
>             I have times when it is useful for me to check the
>             environment of a user
>             system on our lan remotely while trouble shooting and issue
>             with them. Now,
>             this is quite easy to do while I am using a windows system
>             via the computer
>             management console.
>
>
>         I think we are meaning different things by "environment"?
>         Can you give a specific example?
>
>
>             However, I am trying to do this via a linux workstation
>             (which is joined to the domain, etc.). I cannot find a native
>             facility to duplicate the computer management functions, so
>             I thought I
>             would write a program to fill the need.
>
>
>         Anything you can do locally you can do on the remote
>         machine with a combination of ssh, rsh, rlogin, telnet etc.
>         ssh is the safest but requires a bit more admin to set it
>         up properly for maximum convenience.
>
>         Having got remote access its just a case of figuring out
>         which of the 500 or so Unix commands you need to
>         use to do the job... :-)
>
>
>         HTH,
>
>         --
>         Alan Gauld
>         Author of the Learn to Program web site
>         http://www.alan-g.me.uk/
>
>
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-- 
Steve Willoughby / steve at alchemy.com
"A ship in harbor is safe, but that is not what ships are built for."
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