newgrp(1) - inconsistent

[Dave Sherman]

In article <753 at aecom.UUCP> naftoli at aecom.UUCP (Robert Berlinger) writes:
~| Why were such pains taken to make the newgrp(1) command overlay
~| the current shell?  It seems to me that it's more natural to have it
~| fork off a seperate shell just like su(1) does.  In fact, I prefer
~| it that way.  Anyone else have any comments?

First off, please don't start a discussion in both net.unix
and net.unix-wizards. Most people who read one read the other
anyway, and it causes duplication on the ARPA mailing lists
and for those who read news in certain ways. I'm continuing
this in net.unix only.

I would not want newgrp to work like su. Someone who needs
access to various groups' permission may want to change his
current access several times during a session, without
leaving a trail of sleeping shells in the background (using
up process slots, among other things). You should not have
to type ctrl-D umpteen times to log off, when all you've done
is change your group permissions.

This is rather different from su, were, for a (presumably
limited) period of time, you are masquerading as someone else
for the purposes of permissions and it is implicit that when
done with whatever you needed su for, you will return to
being yourself. With newgrp you are still yourself.

Dave Sherman
Toronto
-- 
 {allegra,cornell,decvax,ihnp4,linus,utzoo}!utcsrgv!dave